Joshua Wong 黃之鋒  😷Verified account

2/ Now, with new sweeping powers under the national security law that China promulgated for Hong Kong on June 30, the news media themselves are in the Chinese government’s crosshairs.

3/ The publisher Jimmy Lai, whose media company puts out the popular tabloid Apple Daily, has long been one of Beijing’s most vocal critics in HK. Mr.Lai was arrested on Monday morning under the recent law, for allegedly colluding with foreign forces.

4/ The paper’s office was raided by dozens of police. Lai was released on bail late Tues night. A special unit has been created in the Immigration Department to vet visa applications that are deemed to be sensitive, including for foreign correspondents, according to The Standard.

5/ The Hong Kong police now grants access to ground operations only to “trusted media outlets”: On Monday, reporters from Reuters, Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press, among others, reportedly were blocked from the scene of the raid at Apple Daily.

6/ Police cordoned off the headquarters of the tabloid Apple Daily after Lai’s arrest. Freedom of speech and of the press, both vital to the rule of law and the city’s vibrancy, are under attack.

7/ China is extending to HK the regime of media regulation and repression that it applies on the mainland. Today, it’s the media. Yesterday, it was legislators, contenders to political office & activists: Recently, just after disqualifying pro-democracy candidates from running...

8/ ...in elections scheduled for Sep, the HK authorities delayed by a year — paving the way, I think, for their being cancelled. Tmr, who knows who will be China’s next targets. But I do know that many HKers will respond then, too, by demonstrating our solidarity, creatively.

9/ In a show of support for Mr. Lai and Apple Daily, people have been buying up shares of his media company: The stock’s price surged by 1,200 percent in less than two days. I began writing this Op-Ed on Monday evening.