"Hong Kong's once vibrant media outlets have responded with silence or celebration to the 20-year jail sentence handed down to Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy media tycoon and critic of the Chinese Communist party. Lai, 78, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday after being convicted of sedition and colluding with foreign forces under Hong Kong's national security law. The charges were widely seen as being politically motivated and designed to silence one of Hong Kong's most influential pro-democracy campaigners."
"The US, the UK, the EU and the UN have condemned the heavy sentence handed down to Lai, a British citizen, and called for his release. Lai's sentence is the harshest meted out under the national security law and is longer than the punishments given to mainland China's most well-known dissidents. Jimmy Lai is the founder of Apple Daily, a popular pro-democracy newspaper that was forced to close in 2021 amid a crackdown on dissent in the Hong Kong."
"But Hong Kong's press associations, once the voices of media freedom in the city, reacted with silence, underscoring the narrowing space for commentary that could be seen as critical of the authorities. Selina Cheng, the chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), said: I'm not free to speak my mind on the Apple Daily sentencing. The HKJA has been attacked before by the Hong Kong government for whitewashing Lai, and the association and Cheng personally have also been targeted by Chinese state media."
Jimmy Lai, 78, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after convictions for sedition and colluding with foreign forces under Hong Kong's national security law. The charges targeted a prominent pro-democracy campaigner and were widely seen as politically motivated efforts to silence dissent. Lai founded Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper that was forced to close in 2021 amid a crackdown on dissent. The sentence is the harshest under the national security law and exceeds penalties for mainland dissidents. International bodies including the US, UK, EU and UN condemned the sentence. Local press associations largely remained silent or declined comment.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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