Apple Daily publisher Next Digital says it is not ceasing operations and apologises to staff
Apple Daily published its final edition last week, and an earlier memo said its own was ceasing operations from 1 July
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Your support makes all the difference.Next Digital, the firm that published Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, has announced that it is not ceasing operations after all.
In an internal memo sent to employees, Next Digital apologised for an earlier “wrong message” and said it would not cease its operations as earlier announced.
The Hong Kong-based media group — in a previous 30 June memo to the staff — said it decided to cease operations from 1 July after the company’s assets were frozen in a national security investigation by the Hong Kong Security Bureau.
Apple Daily was shut last week after its newsroom was raided by about 500 police officers investigating whether some of their stories and articles breached a contentious security law.
“The group will cease operations. Although the road ahead is difficult, continue to move forward (sic),” the earlier 30 June memo had said.
China passed the Hong Kong National Security Law on 30 June last year, making punishable acts deemed by the authorities to be “subversive, secessionist, terrorism or in collusion with foreign forces”, with sentences up to life in prison.
Critics of the law say it is being used to punish dissent and crush the city’s pro-democracy movement. Its supporters, meanwhile, say it restored order in Hong Kong after many months of protests and protects Beijing’s authority in the city.
Bloomberg reported that Next Digital, in a stock exchange filing late on Wednesday, said it planned to sell the offices of Apple Daily to an undisclosed buyer, while earlier on Tuesday it said a proposal had been accepted to sell Amazing Sino International, publisher of Taiwan Apple Daily.
Next Digital shares have been suspended since 17 June.
Next Digital is owned by 73-year-old Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy media tycoon who was sentenced to 14 months in prison in April after being found guilty of “unauthorised assembly”.
The new memo, sent late Thursday, said: “Regarding the e-mail dated on 30 June mentioning that the group would cease operations, the department hereby clarifies that the group is not ceasing operations, but making personnel arrangements.”
It also mentioned that the firm would follow labour rules in terms of settling compensation and payroll issues. “We also extend apologies for the wrong message,” the memo said.
Hundreds braved heavy rain to gather outside the Apple Daily office in Hong Kong to get the pro-democracy newspaper’s final edition at the end of last week.
The closure of Apple Daily — after 26 years of operations — was seen as a big blow to press freedom in Hong Kong.
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