A Hong Kong on-line information website mentioned Sunday that it could stop operations in gentle of deteriorating press freedoms, days after police raided and arrested seven folks for sedition at a separate pro-democracy information outlet.
Citizen Information introduced its determination in a Fb put up Sunday. It mentioned it could cease updating its website on Jan. 4, and it could be shuttered after that.
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“We have now all the time liked this land, however at current, we’re helpless as we’re not solely going through wind and rain, however tornadoes and big waves,” it mentioned in a press release.
“We have now by no means forgotten our authentic intentions, however it’s a pity that the speedy adjustments in society previously two years and the deterioration of the media surroundings have prevented us from reaching our beliefs with out fear.”
Citizen Information is the third information outlet to shut in latest months, following pro-democracy newspaper Apple Each day and on-line website Stand Information. Authorities have moved to silent dissent within the semi-autonomous metropolis, as soon as often known as a hub for vibrant media retailers, after Beijing applied a sweeping nationwide safety regulation following huge pro-democracy protests in 2019.
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Hong Kong police cost 2 Stand Information editors with sedition a day after raiding outlet
The upcoming closure of Citizen Information got here days after authorities raided Stand Information and arrested seven folks – together with editors and former board members – for allegedly conspiring to publish seditious materials. Stand Information introduced on the identical day that it could stop to function.
Two of Stand Information’ former editors have been later formally charged with sedition.
In December, the opposition was shut out from elections underneath a brand new regulation that places all candidates to a loyalty check, and monuments commemorating the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Sq. crackdown in Beijing have been taken down.
The U.S. and different Western authorities have condemned diminishing press and civil freedoms that Beijing promised to uphold for 50 years following Hong Kong’s 1997 handover from Britain.
Hong Kong chief Carrie Lam final week defended the raid on Stand Information, telling reporters that “inciting different folks … couldn’t be condoned underneath the guise of stories reporting.”
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