Citizen News said it would stop updating its site on January 4th and that it would be shut down after that.
A Hong Kong online news site said on January 2 that it would cease operations, days after a police raid and in light of deteriorating press freedom. Seven people arrested for sedition On a different pro-democracy news outlet.
Citizen News announced its decision in a Facebook post on January 2. It said it would stop updating its site on January 4th and that it would be shut down after that.
“We have always loved this land, but currently we are helpless as we are facing not only wind and rain, but also tornadoes and huge waves,” the statement said.
“We have never forgotten our original intentions, but it is a pity that in the past two years the rapid changes in society and the deterioration in the media environment have prevented us from achieving our ideals without any concern.”
Citizen News is the third news outlet to shut down in recent months, following pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily And online site stand news, After Beijing imposed sweeping national security legislation, officials have moved to silence discontent in the semi-autonomous city, once known as a hub for vibrant media outlets. Massive pro-democracy protests in 2019,
Days after the imminent closure of Citizen News, authorities raided Stand News and arrested seven people – including the editor and former board members – for allegedly plotting to publish seditious material. Stand News announced the same day that it would stop operating.
Two former editors of Stand News were later formally charged with sedition.
In December, the opposition was kicked out of the elections under a new law that puts all candidates to a loyalty test, and commemorates the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing,
The US and other Western governments have condemned the dwindling press and civil liberties that Beijing promised to maintain for 50 years after Hong Kong’s handover to Britain in 1997.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam defended the raid on Stand News last week, telling reporters that “inciting other people … under the guise of news reporting cannot be forgiven.”
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