On September 3, the West Kowloon Court ruled that Chi-Ying Lai, the founder of Next Media, was not guilty of intimidating and threatening journalists from the pro-China Hong Kong newspaper Oriental Daily News during a June 4 commemoration gala at Victoria Park in 2017, according to a lawsuit filed against her by the Hong Kong democracy icon and founder of Next Media.
In his ruling, Judge Chung stated that he did not consider the plaintiff to be a reliable and honest witness, and that the plaintiff gave several uncontradictory answers in his evidence.
During the trial, the judge showed footage of the incident provided by Hong Kong’s Oriental Daily News. The judge said he did not hear Chi-Ying Lai say “I’m looking for someone to mess with you” and that the video showed her pointing her finger at the other party without any weapon.
In the case of the Oriental Daily News, the reporter’s defense lawyer questioned the journalist’s ethics, saying that the incident occurred because the newspaper’s reporter repeatedly followed her for a year, affecting her normal life and invading her privacy, causing her to speak out on impulse.
The judge said the journalist did suffer from adjustment disorder after the incident, but was unsure whether the symptoms were caused directly or indirectly by the case. The judge ruled that the Oriental Daily reporter was not really in shock at the time of the incident.
Judge Zhong said that to convict Chi-Ying Lai of threatening, it was necessary to reach a conclusion that the other party was threatened and harmed at the time of the incident, and that there was an intention to warn the other party and to frighten him, but the evidence did not show that these two things were true.
The judge ruled that the defendant was not guilty of threatening because the plaintiff’s evidence was not found to be true and reliable, and the defendant’s testimony was found to be credible and without a record.
Under Hong Kong law, a defendant convicted of criminal intimidation will serve two years in prison and be fined HK$2,000.
On August 10, for the first time, the Hong Kong police used the Chinese Communist Party’s “Hong Kong version of the National Security Law” to make mass arrests of Next Media founder Chi-Ying Lai and 10 other executives, and conducted a high-profile raid on Next Media’s headquarters. The incident shocked Hong Kong people and the international community.
According to some analysts, the authorities, through the purge and attempt to destroy Apple Daily, internally created a “white terror” purge effect, stifled press freedom, and externally retaliated against the United States to sanction 11 Hong Kong government and Chinese Communist Party officials involved in promoting the National Security Law.
Chi-Ying Lai, considered by the Communist Party to be the “main financier of the opposition,” visited the United States last year during the early days of the massive protests in Hong Kong against the amendment to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Chi-ying to discuss developments in the “anti-sentinel” movement and Hong Kong’s autonomy.
The pro-establishment factions in Beijing and Hong Kong believe that Chi-Ying Lai and Apple Daily are the main “culprits” for the so-called “messing up of Hong Kong,” while the democrats and most Hong Kong people believe that the outspoken Apple Daily is a bellwether for freedom of press and speech.
Recent Comments