Jimmy Lai and his Battle with Beijing

Jimmy Lai when he started Apple Daily in 1995

 

I remember when Apple Daily launched in June 1995. It was a brash upstart in the then crowded Hong Kong media scene, with its distinctive apple logo and name making it easy to remember, and its brightly coloured graphics and layout that founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying explained, were modeled after USA Today.

Before Apple Daily he started Next Magazine that was known for its racy paparazzi photos of celebrities caught having affairs, along with lots of gossip in entertainment, business and society. Its reporters rushed out to the scenes of accidents, some really gruesome and the pictures had to be pixelated.

So it's not surprising Apple Daily caught on with readers who were looking for alternative information. It was also refreshing in reflecting Lai's anti-communist stance, as most of the papers were starting to change their stance by then or the following year to be more politically correct towards Beijing.

This morning he was arrested at his home

However, despite the newspaper being one of the most popular in the city in terms of readership, which meant companies wanted to advertise in the paper, big clients like property developers stopped dropping millions of dollars to buy ad space in 2003. Ten years later banking giants like HSBC,

Standard Chartered and Heng Seng also stopped advertising with Apple Daily.

Since then the paper and its magazines have been dying a slow death, with individual magazines folding into one, and staff being laid off because of tight budgets.

But if you work there it probably means you believe passionately in the paper, or Lai, are anti-communist, or a combination of those reasons.

So this morning seeing the news that Lai was being arrested (again), but this time for allegedly breaching the national security law on collusion with foreign forces, it was like feeling freedom of the press in Hong Kon

Some 200 police officers raided Apple Daily offices

g had suffered an intense punch in the gut and may not recover.

Lai knew it was coming. He predicted he would be arrested after the national security law was enacted and he prepared. He moved assets outside of Hong Kong, the office shredded documents and uploaded digitized files onto overseas servers. 

But was he prepared for his two sons to be arrested too? Perhaps, knowing how dictatorships work, dragging in family to make it more difficult. Hope they are psychologically prepared for the long haul while the rest of us watch, stressed out, frustrated, angry and sad.

So when some 200 police showed up at the Apple Daily offices in Tseung Kwan O, the reporters did what they naturally did -- report on the situation, which happened to be themselves. Even editor-in-chief Ryan Law Wai-kwong hosted a Facebook Live on what was happening, even going through back stairwells to evade the police.

He also sent a text message to all the staff saying they still had a paper to put out tomorrow. In other words, business as usual. 

Some officers seen rifling through reporters desks

While all this was happening, Next Media's stock price was falling down to HK$0.08, but a few hours later the stock shot up 344 percent to as high as HK$0.40 and ended the day at HK$0.255. While it's not institutional investors buying shares, it was a form of support for Lai and the paper. One person bought 1.2 million shares at HK$0.078 for HK$95,000. 

Don't be surprised if tomorrow's edition is sold out.

Meanwhile the police conduct of the whole operation was an opportunity for officers to throw their weight around and show who's boss. Some were recorded on Apple Daily's live stream flicking through reporters' documents even though the warrant said it would not touch the editorial section of the paper. 

They arrested Lai at his home in the early morning, but a few hours later paraded him handcuffed through the office like a prized animal that had been caught. 

When reporters came into the office to work, officers demanded to see their identification and took down personal contact details. They were also ordered to stop filming the police as they conducted searches in the office (but they continued as best they could).

Later when Steve Li Kwai-wah of the police's national security department finally held a press briefing to explain the situation, the police decided only certain media would be allowed to attend the event, with the criteria being they had to be large organizations that "had not obstructed or posed a safety threat to officers in police operations in the past".

Editor-in-chief Ryan Law arguing with police

Since when did the police get to dictate who covers a press briefing? It's not an exclusive interview!

Media organizations like RTHK, AFP Associated Press and Stand News were not allowed to attend the briefing.

Chris Yeung Kin-hing, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association described the police raid as "shocking and horrifying", and called on journalists to be prepared for the worst.  

"I believe many who have been in the industry for decades have not seen this before," he said. "This is what we have seen in some of the third-world countries where the press and freedom of the press are suppressed. But I could not imagine seeing this in Hong Kong."

Well, Mr Yeung, it did happen. And it happened in Malaysia last week with the police raiding the Kuala Lumpur offices of Al Jazeera, and in the Philippines with police arresting Maria Ressa of Rappler in Manila. It also happened in Sydney when the federal police raided the offices of the public broadcaster, the Australia Broadcasting Corporation.

So yes there is a war against the media, who are only trying to report what they see as the truth.

Today was summed up by someone working at the paper.

"I had prepared myself mentally for this. But emotionally I feel a little conflicted. It's happened so quickly. The government is finally taking this drastic step to destroy the city's media freedoms."

One journalist pointed out that press freedom in Hong Kong was not dead -- yet, and that there was still a space to operate in.

But when you see a media organization that prides itself on giving Beijing the finger, the underdog you rooted for may not be around much longer.