Defiant HK media tycoon tells his staff to ‘fight on’

HONG KONG: Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai on Wednesday told his reporters to “fight on” after his dramatic arrest, as China widens its crackdown against critics in the semiautonomous city.

The clampdown has gathered pace since Beijing imposed a sweeping security law on the international business hub in June, with opposition politicians disqualified and activists arrested for social media posts.

Lai was among 10 people detained under the new law on Monday as around 200 police officers searched the newsroom of his Apple Daily tabloid, which is unapologetically critical of Beijing.the 71-year-old was cheered by staff and handed a bouquet on Wednesday as he returned to the newsroom following a late-night release on bail after 40 hours in custody. “Fight on! Let’s fight on,” Lai said. “We have the support of the Hong Kong people. We can’t let them down.”

In images broadcast live on Facebook by his own reporters, he told staff to continue filing the kind of unvarnished dispatches that have infuriated China and pro-beijing politicians in Hong Kong. But Lai told staff it was becoming “increasingly difficult” to run a media business in the city. “Luckily, I was not sent back to the mainland,” he quipped in a characteristic display of dark humour.

HK HALTS EXTRADITION PACT WITH FRANCE

Hong Kong said it had suspended its extradition agreements with France and Germany after the two European powers made the same move to protest shrinking freedoms in the financial hub.