Hong Kong Press Freedom

Citizen News is the latest Hong Kong media outlet to close it's doors over employee fears.

• Hong Kong pro-democracy paper, Citizen News, closes it's doors today citing the city's deteriorating media environment and the need to protect the journalists working there.
• Citizen News was founded by some of Hong Kong's veteran reporters and has been totally crowd funded since it was created in 2017.
• The closure comes after Hong Kong police raided offices of another pro-democracy news organisation, Stand News. Seven editorial members were also arrested.
• In a Facebook post soon after, Stand News announced, “Because of the situation, Stand News is ceasing operations immediately.” It also said it would be removing its social media content.
• More than 200 police officers raided the offices of Stand News and have also confiscated $8 million worth of the media organisation’s assets.
• This move comes six months after a similar operation against another pro-democracy media organisation, Apple Daily. It’s founder, Jimmy Lai, is also behind bars.
• Reporters have been warned that anyone who “makes use of media work as a tool to pursue their political purpose . . . [that] contravenes the law and endangers national security.”
• The National Security Law enacted by Beijing in Hong Kong in June 2020 has targeted civil institutions such as the educational sector and the media. Over 90 people have been detained.
• Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called for the release of journalists and democracies around the world “to defend what’s left of the free press in Hong Kong.”