Hong Kong newspaper editor, CEO denied bail

The CEO and editor of a pro-Democracy newspaper in Hong Kong were denied bail at their court hearing Saturday after being detained for breaking the city’s new national security law. 

The chief editor of Apple Daily, Ryan Law, and the CEO of the paper’s parent company, Next Digital, Cheung Kim-hung, were charged with collusion with a foreign country to endanger national security and were denied bail due to Chief Magistrate Victor So believing they would violate the law again, The Associated Press reported.

Law and Cheung will be held at the Lai Chi Kok detention center until their next court date on Aug. 13.

The two were arrested, along with two Apple Daily senior editors and another executive, on Thursday after police raided the newspaper’s office and seizes 44 hard drives, according to the AP.

The senior editors and the other executive were able to post bail, as they have not yet been formally charged. 

The day after the arrest, Apple Daily printed five times its normal number of papers, 500,000 copies, with a picture of the arrests on the front page. 

People waited in line to buy the pro-Democracy newspaper, as many used it as a way to protest the actions of the government. 

Apple Daily has been active in promoting Democracy in the city by supporting pro-Democracy protests and calling on other countries to sanction China.

Its support is what caused officials to say the CEO and editor were breaking the national security law. 

Hong Kong Security Secretary John Lee said, according to the AP, that it is “simple” for newspapers to follow the law: “Do your journalistic work as freely as you like in accordance with the law provided you do not conspire or have any intention to break the Hong Kong law and certainly not the Hong Kong National Security Law.”