Hong Kong (AFP) – For Hong Kong journalists, the conviction this week of the boss of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily Jimmy Lai reinforces a climate of fear and self-censorship, a few years after Beijing imposed its national security law on the former British colony.

Published on: 02/12/2026 - 10:01

“There will be no other Apple Daily, no one will dare to do what they did again,” said Ronson Chan, journalist and former director of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, about this daily which revealed government scandals and published harsh political comments until its ban in 2021.

A Hong Kong court on Monday sentenced the 78-year-old former media mogul to 20 years in prison for foreign collusion and seditious publication.

Six other former Apple Daily executives also received prison sentences for crimes related to the national security law, imposed in 2020 after large-scale and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests.

Jimmy Lai's conviction was denounced by several countries including the United States and the United Kingdom, and human rights defenders believe that it symbolizes the end of freedoms in Hong Kong.

"Red lines"

Local journalists told AFP that they were working within the increasingly narrow framework of "red lines".

According to Selina Cheng, the current president of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, press bosses "increasingly see themselves as an extension of the government propaganda apparatus."

“The biggest impact (of this turn of the screw) is really the omnipresence of self-censorship and the idea that if you write the wrong thing it could land you in prison,” she emphasizes.

If international comments mainly focus on the case of Jimmy Lai, local journalists also say they are shocked by the sentences handed down against other former executives of Apple Daily.

“I was speechless,” reports Ronson Chan, referring to the 10-year prison sentence handed down to Fung Wai-kong, the general director of the English edition of the newspaper.

Mr. Chan recalls that the defendants had built a flattering reputation. “They made contributions to society and the profession, but that did not count” during their judgment.

At the end of 2021, Stand News, a renowned online media outlet, had also closed. Its editor-in-chief Chung Pui-Kuen was sentenced to 21 months in prison for sedition.

The maximum sentence for sedition, a colonial-era offense, was increased from three to seven years in prison in 2024.

Summons

During the Apple Daily and Stand News trials, prosecutors cited articles and columns proving, according to them, that the journalists had incited people to feel “hatred, contempt or distrust” towards the authorities.

“Articles which, before the national security law, would have been considered ordinary,” notes an experienced journalist who requested anonymity to speak on this sensitive subject.

“Even today, I think that the media, and even legal professionals, still cannot clearly say how these articles crossed the line,” he emphasizes.

Hong Kong journalists still enjoy better working conditions than their mainland colleagues: Hong Kong occupies 140th place in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom ranking, while China is in 178th place.

Selina Cheng observes that although small media outlets powered by crowdfunding have emerged over the last five years, they find themselves in a “precarious” situation and often have difficulty accessing official events.

For the first time, in December 2025, China's national security body in Hong Kong summoned representatives of foreign media to denounce "distorted" coverage of the fatal fire in a residential complex.

Today, “nothing allows us to be optimistic about a potential return” to more press freedom, judges Selina Cheng.

© 2026 AFP

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