Apple Daily editor, CEO denied bail in Hong Kong

Two executives of Hong Kong pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, charged under a national security law, were denied bail on Saturday in a case that has drawn international condemnation and stoked fears over media freedoms in the financial hub.

Editor-in-chief Ryan Law and CEO Cheung Kim-hung were among five Apple Daily executives arrested on Thursday when 500 police also raided the outlet’s newsroom, which authorities described as a “crime scene”.

Police said on Thursday dozens of the newspaper’s articles were suspected of violating the national security law. It was the first case in which authorities have cited media articles as potentially violating the contentious legislation.


Law and Cheung, who are charged with “collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security” appeared at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Saturday and were denied bail by Judge Victor So.

They will next appear in court on August 13.

The pair are accused of colluding with Apple Daily owner and staunch Beijing critic Jimmy Lai between July 1 2020 and April 3 April 2021 to request a foreign country, person or organisation “to impose sanctions or blockade or engage in other hostile activities against the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region or the People's Republic of China,” according to a charge sheet.