The most prominent pro-democracy media outlet still operating in Hong Kong, Stand News, said it will shut down after police raided its offices, froze its assets and arrested senior journalists and former board members including pop star Denise Ho.
Authorities deployed an anti-sedition law in their crackdown that was drawn up under British colonial rule and had not been used for decades. A senior police officer accused the online site of “inciting hatred” against the Hong Kong government in news articles and interviews.
Activists warned this approach could be used to criminalise almost any critical reporting on the Hong Kong government, and the UN and media watchdogs CPJ and RSF condemned the crackdown as an attack on press freedom.
In 1997 after years of negotiation between China and Great Briton Hong Kong was handed back after more than 100 years as a British colony. The terms negotiated allowed for a free press and speech, universal suffrage and to be free of interference from the mainland for 50 years. As Xi Jinping consolidated his power after becoming premier the political atmosphere began to change in Hong Kong. One of the most alarming changes was the kidnaping of several book store owners whose shops sold works critical of Xi Jinping and the CCP. These men would turn up months later on CCTV confessing to crimes that weren't crimes in Hong Kong. It was the start of a campaign of intimidation that has only escalated since 2019 and the pro democracy protests that took place in the city over the now imposed national security law.
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