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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Sum Lok-kei

A year on from Apple Daily’s closure, what’s left of Hong Kong’s free press?

Three people hold up copies of a newspaper with a front-page picture of the founder being led away by police
Protesters hold up copies of Apple Daily as they demonstrate for press freedom in a Hong Kong shopping centre in August 2020. The front-page photograph shows the newspaper’s founder, Jimmy Lai, being arrested in the newsroom the day before. Photograph: Isaac Lawrence/AFP/Getty

Apple Daily’s former headquarters reside in a dusty industrial complex in a far-off area of south-eastern Hong Kong. A year ago today, 1m copies of the pro-democracy newspaper left the printing press for the last time since its launch in 1995.

Once a busy newsroom that was considered the voice of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, today the building is shrouded in an eerie silence, with weeds growing, gates chained shut and empty security booths. Police declined to respond to a request for comment on whether the site was considered a crime scene. Beside the former headquarters’ boarded-up entrance, graffiti in red says: “Give me back my freedom.”

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