HK’S APPLE DAILY TO DECIDE ON SHUTTING DOWN PAPER OR NOT

The board of Next Digital Ltd., which publishes Hong Kong’s Apple Daily, is deciding whether or not to shut down the pro-democracy newspaper, according to a top adviser to owner Jimmy Lai, after police arrested top editors and froze its bank accounts, Iain Marlow and Felix Tam reported for Bloomberg News.

Hong Kong national security officials are blocking the newspaper’s bank accounts, and it may need to close its print and digital operations unless authorities allow access to the funds, said Mark Simon, a top adviser to Lai.

Companies that regularly do business with the newspaper tried to deposit money in its accounts on Friday but were prevented from doing so, he said.

Apple Daily reported over the weekend that the board of Next Digital plans to ask the city’s Security Bureau on Monday for the release of some frozen assets so it can pay the wages of its employees by the end of the month.

Senior managers on some teams in Apple Daily’s newsroom have called in reporters and editors, including those who are on leave, to attend an urgent meeting on Monday at 4 p.m. local time, according to three reporters and editors who declined to be identified.

The arrest of the popular tabloid’s top editors and its potential shutdown has alarmed foreign governments and press freedom advocates. The US called for the immediate release of the detained editors, while Human Rights Watch said the arrests amounted to “a new low in a bottomless assault on press freedom.”

In a statement, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong, said it was “concerned that this latest action will serve to intimidate independent media in Hong Kong and will cast a chill over the free press,” which is guaranteed under the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law.

WEEKLY FEATURE : PAL READY TO SOAR WITH PANDEMIC