Six senior employees of the defunct pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily in Hong Kong pleaded guilty to conspiring with foreign forces on Tuesday.
Their convictions were a result of a historic case in which Beijing’s broad national security statute, which was implemented in the city in 2020 to quell dissent, was for the first time applied against a journalistic organisation and its workers. They could receive a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Apple Daily supported the pro-democracy demonstrations that shook Hong Kong in 2019 and has been harsh in its criticism of the Chinese government for years.
It failed last year after having its assets frozen and numerous senior employees, including founder Jimmy Lai, being accused of violating national security.
At the Hong Kong High Court on Tuesday, four former senior editors and two former executives pleaded guilty to “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security.”
Senior writers Fung Wai-kong and Yeung Ching-kee were among the ex-employees, in addition to chief executive Cheung Kim-hung, associate publisher Chan Pui-man, chief editor Law Wai-Kwong, executive editor Lam Man-Chung, and chief editor Law Wai-Kwong.
More than 160 pieces that Apple Daily had published since April 2019 were presented as evidence in the prosecution’s accusation that they had exploited it to promote information that called for foreign sanctions against China.
It took until June 30, 2020, for the national security statute that criminalised foreign collaboration to go into effect.
In exchange for the defendant’s guilty plea to cooperation, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, the prosecution dropped its allegations of sedition.
(with inputs from agencies)
