At the end of the day on Sunday, the Hong Kong news site CitizenNews announced “heavy heart“That it would cease its activities on Tuesday and that its website would be closed”later“, for “ensure everyone’s safety“. The announcement comes three days after police raided another independent site, StandNews, accused of sedition. The latter announced its closure a few hours later.
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CitizenNews, a non-partisan, user-funded news site founded in 2017 by a group of senior journalists, is one of Hong Kong’s most popular online news outlets, with over 800,000 social media subscribers. . During the past year, he had hired several journalists from other media, as the authorities tightened their control over the press.
“Unfortunately, we can no longer strive to turn our beliefs into reality without fear due to the drastic change in society over the past two years and the deteriorating media environment.The media said in a statement. Hong Kong Radio Television came under the control of pro-government leaders while pro-democracy Apple Daily, accused of posing a threat to national security, was forced to shut down.
China has tightened its control over Hong Kong since massive and often violent pro-democracy protests engulfed the city in 2019, including cracking down on the local press.