HK paper Apple Daily calls itself a 'victim of tyranny' as Raab says it shows ...

HK paper Apple Daily calls itself a 'victim of tyranny' as Raab says it shows ...
HK paper Apple Daily calls itself a 'victim of tyranny' as Raab says it shows ...

Hong Kong's pro-democracy Apple Daily tabloid said it was a 'victim of tyranny' in a defiant final edition on Thursday after it was forced to close under a new national security law, ending a 26-year run of taking on China's authoritarian leaders.   

The Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: 'The closure of Apple Daily in Hong Kong [is a] part of [an] ongoing failure by China to comply with Joint Declaration agreement with Britain.' 

Mr Raab called on China to respect the freedoms of the people of Hong Kong. 

Queues formed across Hong Kong on Thursday as residents raced to snap up one of the one million copies Apple Daily said it planned to print. Many vendors sold out within minutes and were awaiting fresh deliveries

Queues formed across Hong Kong on Thursday as residents raced to snap up one of the one million copies Apple Daily said it planned to print. Many vendors sold out within minutes and were awaiting fresh deliveries

Hong Kong's pro-democracy Apple Daily tabloid said it was a 'victim of tyranny' in a defiant final edition on Thursday after it was forced to close under a new national security law, ending a 26-year run of taking on China's authoritarian leaders

Hong Kong's pro-democracy Apple Daily tabloid said it was a 'victim of tyranny' in a defiant final edition on Thursday after it was forced to close under a new national security law, ending a 26-year run of taking on China's authoritarian leaders

The joint declaration Mr Raab referred to was the Sino British Joint Declaration - a legally binding agreement which says certain freedoms would be protected in Britain's former colony Hong Kong for 50 years after China assumed sovereignty in 1997.

It was signed by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and China's former Premier Zhao Ziyang in 1984. 

Raab said in 2019 that the UK takes these commitments seriously and supports their implementation.  

Apple Daily is the biggest pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong. Its sudden death is the latest blow to Hong Kong's freedoms, deepening unease over whether the international finance centre can remain a media hub as China seeks to stamp out dissent

Apple Daily is the biggest pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong. Its sudden death is the latest blow to Hong Kong's freedoms, deepening unease over whether the international finance centre can remain a media hub as China seeks to stamp out dissent

Dominic Raab said: 'The closure of Apple Daily in Hong Kong part of ongoing failure by china to comply with joint declaration agreement with Britain.'

Dominic Raab said: 'The closure of Apple Daily in Hong Kong part of ongoing failure by china to comply with joint declaration agreement with Britain.'

Apple Daily is the biggest pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong. Its sudden death is the latest blow to Hong Kong's freedoms, deepening unease over whether the international finance centre can remain a media hub as China seeks to stamp out dissent. 

Queues formed across Hong Kong on Thursday as residents raced to snap up one of the one million copies Apple Daily said it planned to print. Many vendors sold out within minutes and were awaiting fresh deliveries.

The front page featured the paper's own journalists waving goodbye to crowds outside its headquarters.

'Apple Daily is dead,' deputy chief editor Chan Pui-man, who was arrested last week on a national security charge, wrote in a farewell letter to readers.

Multiple international media companies have regional headquarters in Hong Kong, attracted to the business-friendly regulations and free speech provisions written into the city's mini-constitution

Multiple international media companies have regional headquarters in Hong Kong, attracted to the business-friendly regulations and free speech provisions written into the city's mini-constitution

PREV UK weather: Storm Nelson hits Easter holidaymakers as gales blow roof off ... trends now
NEXT D-Day hero believed to have been the last surviving Lancaster bomber pilot from ... trends now