Hong Kong ¨C For Hong Kong journalists, this week¡¯s sentencing of pro-democracy newspaper boss Jimmy Lai cements a climate of fear and self-censorship in the years since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law.
¡°There will not be another Apple Daily, nobody dares to copy what it did,¡± journalist and former press union chief Ronson Chan said of Lai¡¯s defunct tabloid, which exposed government scandals and ran scathing political commentary.
On Monday, a court handed the 78-year-old tycoon a 20-year prison term and issued sentences against six other former Apple Daily executives, all convicted under the national security law imposed in 2020 after huge pro-democracy protests.
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