The founder of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily Jimmy Lai asked senior staff to interview him about a Washington trip he made in 2019 to lobby US politicians, a former publisher at the paper has testified against her former employer in his national security trial.
Lead prosecutor Anthony Chau on Thursday presented WhatsApp messages from Lai asking former associate publisher Chan Pui-man to draft a list of 10 questions for an interview with Lai about a lobbying trip he made to Washington in 2019.
Chan, who has pleaded guilty to conspiring to collude with foreign forces, is now acting as a witness for the prosecution. The ex-publisher, who was a senior executive at Apple Daily before it was forced to close in June 2021, was arrested that month and has been in custody since.
“Pui-man, since I don’t have time to write something for this issue, can you interview me by asking me around 10 questions about the current situation in Hong Kong and the lobbying trip in Washington?” Lai asked, according to a translation of the original text message in Chinese.
Chan told the court that the interview article, published in Lai’s own column, Sink or Swim, Smile, included Lai’s answers to questions drafted by Chan and staff on the paper’s politics desk.
Chau directed Chan to one of the questions in the article about whether US politicians’ perceptions of the 2019 extradition bill protests had changed following a marked escalation in violence, asking why that question had been posed.
Chan said in response that she had a general impression that US Congresspersons were concerned about the protests and the escalating violence.
Chan also told the court that the paper had once covered an open letter penned by Hong Kong Watch co-founder Benedict Rogers after Lai sent her a copy of it.
The open letter dated December 18, 2019, was covered in an Apple Daily report, though not in its entirety, Chan confirmed. According to a copy of the letter shown in court, Rogers said he “[believed] that the world needs to try to understand why some protesters have engaged in violence.”
Protesters’ violent methods were in response to “appalling police brutality,” Rogers wrote. “I still believe, however, that the movement is at its best when it holds the moral high ground and protests peacefully,” the letter continued.
Asked whether “moral high ground” was a concept that Lai would invoke in media interviews, Chan said it was.
The ex-publisher added that she had forwarded the PDF file to staff at the paper’s print division after receiving it from Lai, because Rogers’ messaging was “consistent” with Apple Daily’s reports.
Lai, 76, faces charges of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the national security law, and conspiring to publish “seditious” materials under the colonial-era law. He has pleaded not guilty and faces up to life in prison if convicted.
US politicians
The court also heard that the paper had published stories about Lai meeting US politicians to exert pressure on the Hong Kong government.
Chau showed the court a screenshot of a Tweet by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent to Lai by his assistant Mark Simon, in which Pelosi gave her “full support and admiration” to “non-violent” protesters.
The lead prosecutor also showed the court a photo of Jimmy Lai, wanted activist self-exile Dennis Kwok, US Republican Senator Ted Cruz, former chief secretary Anson Chan, and former IT sector lawmaker Charles Mok.
The photo was sent to Lai by Kwok — one of 13 wanted activists accused of violating the national security law, with HK$1 million bounties on their heads.
Chau also presented an Apple Daily report titled “Visiting Hong Kong to express strong support: US lawmaker bombards Carrie Lam’s cancellation of meeting as weak, appeals for nonviolent protests to arouse global attention”.
Special publications
Chau then showed the court a message from ex-publisher Cheung Kim-hung sent over Slack to Apple Daily staff who had attended a meeting.
“Try to find writers of Initium, Stand, Citizen who write better to write commentaries on weekend,” read the message, which contained a summary of a meeting that Chan said was likely held in December 2019.
Asked to identify what “Initium”, “Stand”, and “Citizen” meant, Chan told the court Cheung was referring to “online media outlets” Initium, Stand News, and Citizen News.
Cheung also wrote in that message that “Three photo albums of anti-extradition Big Resistance can be put together for publishing, related to things previously shown.”
Chan told the court Cheung was referring to the Apple Daily publications Freedom Summer 2019, Anti-authoritarianism in June, and another hardcover photo album.
Chau presented to the court an Apple Daily publication released that September titled Freedom Summer 2019 — a supplement in magazine form.
The publication, sold at HK$10, sold out on September 20, the initial day of publication and was reprinted for release a week later, then released in English on October 9, Chan confirmed.
The second and third reprints included small text indicating that proceeds would be donated to the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund — a group that provided financial assistance to arrested protesters in 2019, which has since dissolved.
The decision to reprint the magazine was made by Cheung, after readers called for more copies to be sold, Chan said, adding that she was not sure whether Lai was involved in the decision.
Chan also confirmed that the supplement was promoted via the push notification on the paper’s smartphone application as Chau showed the court a screenshot of the notification
The court’s English translation read: “Spread it to the international community! The bilingual version of the e-book Freedom Summer 2019 has been released, register to read it for free!”
Apple Daily halted operations in June 2021 after its newsroom was raided by police for a second time and several senior staff were arrested. The publication was one of Hong Kong’s most prominent newspapers and was known for its entertainment coverage as well as its pro-democracy stance.
Chan is among six senior Apple Daily employees who pleaded guilty to conspiring to collude with foreign forces in November 2022 and will be sentenced after Lai’s trial, which is expected to last 80 days.
The media mogul is being tried before a panel of three judges handpicked by the government to oversee national security cases, and no jury, a departure from the city’s common law system.
Lai, who has been detained since December 2020, is one of the most well-known figures to be charged under the national security law, which Beijing imposed in Hong Kong in June 2020 following months of protests and unrest. Apple Daily is not the only independent newsroom to have disbanded since the law was enacted – Stand News and Citizen News shuttered in December 2021, six months after Apple Daily’s closure.
Lai’s case is seen globally as a bellwether for the state of press freedom in Hong Kong, although authorities have maintained that the city still enjoys a high degree of media freedoms.
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