Hong Kongers are in a hurry to buy the final edition of the Apple Daily

Hundreds of Hong Kongers lined up for hours to buy the final edition of Apple Daily on Thursday morning, a day after the pro-democracy newspaper closed following the arrests of senior journalists and the government freezing its assets.

The tabloid founded by the media mogul Jimmy Lai he has long irritated the Hong Kong and Beijing authorities for his coverage of city officials and for his strong criticism of the Chinese Communist Party.

His the closure has been seen as a marker of the deterioration of civil liberties and the repression of political opposition in the city after China imposed a harsh national security law last year after pro-democracy protests in 2019.

The law increased control of Beijing’s territory, to which a high degree of autonomy was promised for 50 years after the British government handed over to the Chinese in 1997.

Dominic Raab, UK Secretary of State, said the closure of Apple Daily was proof that national security law “was used as a tool to reduce freedoms and punish dissent, rather than maintain public order “.

Carrie Lam, chief executive of Hong Kong, responded to Western criticism of the newspaper’s forced closure, accusing the U.S. of “embellishing” criminal acts that endangered the state.

Hong Kong authorities have accused the newspaper and its executives of endangering national security by issuing calls for sanctions against the city and its officials following the 2019 protests. Chinese state media have labeled Apple Daily as the secessionist.

Apple Daily printed 1m copies of his final edition Thursday, much more than its usual circulation of about 150,000 copies.

In some kiosks, the lines were hundreds of deep. In Mong Kok, one of the busiest shopping districts in the city, in Kowloon, supporters lined up at newsstands at 1 a.m. to get a copy directly from the press. Many vendors sold out on Thursday morning.

“I felt too sad to shed tears,” said a 55-year-old man who said he had read Apple Daily since it was launched 26 years ago. “I read everything in the newspaper, including the columns, the sport, everything. . . I can’t think of any other newspaper to buy. “

At the offices of Next Digital, Apple Daily’s parent company, staff gathered on the rooftop and tossed their cell phones to the fans gathered below. Many employees had resigned before the closure, especially after police attacked the company’s offices last week and arrested five executives, including Ryan Law, editor-in-chief of the newspaper, under national security law, the first time the national security standard was used against journalists.

Apple Daily’s news articles and other content were removed from the connection Thursday at midnight, as a sign of possible concern about additional legal issues facing the company. Internet users had struggled to archive the material on Hong Kong web forums.