Hong Kong. (ANI) As the National Security Law imposed by Beijing in Hong Kong completes one year, several online media outlets in the city are taking down opinion articles and videos from their websites and have said they would move out after the arrest of another Apple Daily columnist on Sunday.
A pro-democracy news outlet in Hong Kong said it had temporarily suspended commentaries written by its bloggers and readers from the May this year. It further decided to stop accepting monthly sponsorship from readers and to shelve older commentaries, reported Asian times.
Hong Kong’s national security law has decimated freedoms and created a “ Human rights emergency”, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.
“In one year, the National Security Law has put Hong Kong on a rapid path to becoming a police state and created a human rights emergency for the people living there,” Amnesty's Asia-Pacific Regional Director Yamini Mishra said.
Winandmac Media, an IT website that had covered Hong Kong news since 2010, said it had already moved its operations and financial resources out of Hong Kong due to the dramatic deterioration of press freedom in the city.
Earlier, Going Wai- long, a senior editorial writer of Hong Kong pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily was arrested at the city airport on charges of Collusion, local media reported.
According to Asia Times, the Hong Kong Journalists Association(HKJA) condemned the police for again targeting journalists. Ronson Chan, chairman of HKJA, said it was worrying that Apple Daily's closure failed to stop further arrests.
“We are afraid that the police have a list and still many journalists or commentary writers will be targeted by the police. So I’m afraid that the arrests will continue”, Chan said.
Apple Daily was last week forced to call off its operation after the city authorities froze its assets and arrested five executives under the draconian National Security Law.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/hong-kong-security-law-creates-human-rights-emergency-amnesty/articleshow/83975403.cms
