Hong Kong pop star Denise Ho and 6 other pro-democracy activists arrested

Siu Chiu via Reuters

The arrest of this pop star recalls the plight of pro-democracy in Hong Kong (Denise Ho in April 2010 by REUTERS / Tyrone Siu)

HONG KONG – Beijing is still fighting against pro-democracy. The Hong Kong online site News stand announced this Wednesday, December 29 its closure after being targeted by a series of searches. Seven people were arrested for “seditious publication”, including Cantonese pop star Denise Ho, a former board member who resigned in June. This is the last episode of repression on the local press by pro-Beijing authorities.

This new crackdown comes as the international community worries about the relentless takeover in Hong Kong since the pro-democracy protests of 2019. The Committee to Protect Journalists has denounced “an open attack on freedom of the press already in tatters in Hong Kong ”.

Denise Ho was born in Hong Kong and raised in Canada. It was in the early 2000s that she became known with a series of Cantonese pop albums, the “cantopop”. This before embarking on a successful acting career later.

Arrest in Hong Kong of Denise Ho, popstar and activist, ex-muse of Lancome, his engagement had cost him the loss of his contract. In France we saw him in “Life without principle” by Johnnie To. His song “Polaire” describes the crossing of the night and the hope of dawn. pic.twitter.com/d5OhSwXQAR

– Adrien Gombeaud (@AdrienGombeaud) December 29, 2021

According to Grazia, in 2012, during Gay Pride, she is the first singer from Hong Kong to come out, claiming to be “tongzhi”, homosexual in Chinese. In 2014, she pushes her commitment further in politics during the “umbrella revolution”. On December 11, 2014, she was arrested, before being released, but she was deprived of a concert in China, her music was withdrawn from the web and her accounts closed on social networks. She thus became an international face of Hong Hong’s pro-democracy movement, appearing before the United Nations and the United States Congress.

The end of Stand News

Denise Ho is one of seven people arrested in connection with the News stand. According to local media reports, the police also arrested ex-editor Chung Pui-kuen. Besides the star, other former board members who stepped down in June are lawyer and former Hong Kong Legislative Council member Margaret Ng, who ex-reporter for theApple Daily Chan Pui-man.

The Deputy Editor-in-Chief of News standRonson Chan, also president of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, said his home was searched and police seized computer equipment from his home. But he was not arrested.

“Because of the current situation, News stand will cease its activity immediately, and will stop updating its site and all its social networks ”, announced the publication on its Facebook page.

News stand also indicated that all its staff had been made redundant, that its editor-in-chief Patrick Lam had resigned, and that the site would be taken offline soon.

Six officials including Denise Ho, of the Hong Kong online media Lichang Xinwen (The Stand News) were arrested this morning for “conspiring to seditious publications”. The fate of this Hong Kong media seems to be in the way of Apple Daily. pic.twitter.com/ArA4N4mUmx

– Zhulin Zhang (@ZhangZhulin) December 29, 2021

“News stand was editorially independent, and dedicated to protecting Hong Kong core values such as democracy, human rights, freedom, the rule of law and justice ”, continued the media, created in 2014 and nominated in November for the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Prize.

“Evil allegations without any factual basis”

Hong Kong National Security Police Chief Steve Li said News stand was accused of posting “seditious” articles and blog posts between July 2020 and November 2021. “They described protesters in Hong Kong as ‘missing’ or ‘raped’ … These are vicious allegations without any factual basis, ”Steve Li said at a press conference.

At midday on Wednesday, the National Security Police were seen pulling out boxes of News stand. Steve Li claimed that computers, phones, documents and 500,000 Hong Kong dollars (56,856 euros) in cash were seized. The authorities froze HKD 61 million (nearly € 6.8 million) in assets belonging to News stand, added the police official.

More than 200 officers carried out searches on Wednesday at the headquarters of News stand and at the homes of several media employees. The police said they had been authorized by a court to “search and seize journalistic material of interest”.

Press freedom “in tatters” in Hong Kong

During the 2019 protests, several journalists from News stand had had trouble with the police. In one famous episode, a media reporter filmed live the ultraviolet attack by a group of masked individuals against pro-democracy protesters in a metro station, and continued to film even as the attackers took to the streets. took it to her.

News stand has been the target in recent months of sharp criticism from the authorities. Hong Kong security official Chris Tang had recently accused him of publishing “biased, defamatory and demonized” information about the city’s prisons.

It is the second local newspaper company to find itself in the crosshairs of the authorities. In June, the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily had closed after its assets were frozen and its top executives were arrested under a drastic new national security law imposed by Beijing in July 2020.

See also on The HuffPost: In Hong Kong, a statue in memory of the Tiananmen crackdown debunked

The end of Stand News

“Evil allegations without any factual basis”

Press freedom “in tatters” in Hong Kong

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