Where are Apple Daily’s staff now?published at 05:55 GMT
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In 2021, Apple Daily announced its closure, citing safety concerns after police raided its offices. The publication was a leading critic of the Hong Kong and Chinese leadership, and its shuttering was a blow to media freedom in the city.
A year earlier, China had imposed the national security law (NSL) on Hong Kong that it says is necessary for maintaining stability in the city, but critics say it is being used to stifle dissent.
Since the implementation of the NSL, at least 900 Hong Kong journalists have lost their jobs and a further 28 journalists and press freedom advocates have been prosecuted, according to estimates by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Many journalists have left the city entirely.
Some, like former Apple Daily reporter Shirley Leung, have launched new media outlets to continue covering Hong Kong news from outside the city. She told RSF that her team’s goal was to “fill the black hole of information” left by disappearing independent media in Hong Kong.
“Media outlets located outside Hong Kong can report with relative freedom, without ‘red lines’ and select news or angles that have already ‘disappeared’ in Hong Kong,” Edward Ka Chung Li, a former editor at Apple Daily, told RSF.
Read more on Apple Daily here.
