Hong Kong Cracks Down on a Pro-Democracy Newspaper

Police arrested the top editors of Apple Daily, froze its assets and raided its newsroom, in a sharp escalation of the government’s campaign against dissent.

HONG KONG — The Hong Kong police on Thursday launched a sweeping clampdown on Apple Daily, an embattled pro-democracy newspaper, arresting five senior executives, freezing company accounts and warning its readers not to repost some of the publication’s articles online. It was not immediately clear how the clampdown would affect Apple Daily’s ability to publish. But the police raid and the new restrictions represent the most aggressive use yet of Hong Kong’s sweeping national security law, imposed last year by Beijing, against a media outlet. It will likely have a chilling effect on other media in Hong Kong, a former British colony once known for its vibrant newspaper scene and broad free speech protections. The police said that they had arrested five executives at Apple Daily and its parent company, Next Digital, on suspicion of “collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security.”