The 852 Post, a seven-and-a-half-year-old online media outlet, is the first media outlet to close after the National Security Law came into effect. The Post’s founder and editor-in-chief, Yau Ching-yuen, pointed out that some employees resigned at the request of their families under the National Security Law, coupled with the Hong Kong government’s inevitable legislation on fake news, the situation is like an open knife on the necks of those who stay in the industry, and has even seen blood, in order to avoid the fear of young journalists and their families, so temporarily shut down the media, while he personally continued to speak out online.
However, the Apple Daily, which is more targeted by the Hong Kong government, decided to persist in its coverage. The newspaper is rumored to be banned in July and its staff will be arrested. The group CEO Zhang Jianhong pointed out that the rumors are absurd and stressed that the newspaper “will not be the one who will be in charge and will not be finished” and there is no plan to evacuate the staff. In addition, Chief Editor Luo Weiguang said he understood the staff’s concern about touching the “red line” of the National Security Law, but admitted that it was impossible to provide clear guidelines to the staff, and could only uphold the policy of protecting the public’s right to know to report.
In a live broadcast of his “farewell speech” yesterday (14) afternoon, the editor-in-chief of the 852 Post, Yau Ching-yuen, said he had always believed that if the Hong Kong government legislated on Article 23 of the Basic Law concerning national security, the situation would be very precarious. He described the National Security Law as “an article 23 that is even hotter than article 23”, which made the newspaper stop the idea of hiring more staff.
But then the situation worsened, as he described the arrests of pro-democracy activists and protesters, the raids on Apple Daily, the blockade of Radio Television Hong Kong, the “improvement” of the electoral system, the recent passage of the legislation on the oath of office for district council members, and then the inevitable legislation on fake news. A little blood has been spilled. After much deliberation, he decided to end the 852 Post, which he founded, so that its staff and their families would not be “frightened”.
You also said that the decision to close the Post was painful and had to do with the paper’s finances. The Post” in 2014 after the Occupy movement, because of the blacklisted and advertising plummeted, had a monthly loss of more than 100,000 yuan, after the transformation of the development of social media commentary and can be sustained, but the current situation, the future may not be able to support, so by the company’s lease expires today (15) days, announced the closure of business, he is transformed to persist, continue to speak out on social media such as youtube.
He said he was convinced that Hong Kong would have democracy and true universal suffrage, and that the sweat, tears and blood of Hong Kong people would not be in vain. He concluded his speech with Nalan Shengde’s “A Journey to the Mountains”, saying, “A journey to the mountains, a journey to the water, a dream of a broken heart in the hometown, no such sound in the homeland.
Named after Hong Kong’s international area code “852”, the 852 Post has had several ups and downs, with seven full-time and part-time employees and 287,000 youtube subscribers at the time of its closure. After the closure, the staff will be laid off and the Post’s website and Facebook page will be taken down.
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