The founder of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily Jimmy Lai asked senior staff to play up the business sector’s concerns over a since-axed extradition law, a former publisher at the paper has said as she testified against her former employer in his national security trial.
Former associate publisher at Apple Daily Chan Pui-man on Monday referred to Lai’s instructions to publish a speech from a US diplomat in Hong Kong, as well as press releases from the advocacy group Hong Kong Watch.
Chan, who stands accused of conspiring to collude with foreign forces along with Lai, became a witness for the prosecution after pleading guilty to the national security charge in November 2022.
She is the second former Apple Daily employee to testify against Lai, after former publisher Cheung Kim-hung completed his testimony last Friday.
A panel of three designated national security judges heard on Monday that the paper had published a speech made by then-US Consul General to Hong Kong and Macau Kurt Tong in February 2019.
Chan testified that Lai had told her over WhatsApp a week later to cover the speech and “make it big,” apparently unaware that Apple Daily had already prominently featured the Tong’s address a day after he delivered it.
“I was thinking… since Lai had placed so much emphasis on this, I told him that we had already covered the speech itself, but would still continue to follow up on whether further reports could be made,” Chan told the court.
Judge Alex Lee asked whether Lai’s judgement had a “bearing on editorial decisions,” to which Chan answered in the affirmative.
Chan also told lead prosecutor Anthony Chau that Apple Daily had published press releases provided by advocacy group Hong Kong Watch, founded by activist Benedict Rogers and UK members of parliament.
Chan was introduced to Rogers in October 2017, and that December, Apple Daily published a story titled “Hong Kong Watch to launch on 11 December 2017”.
She added that she would describe Hong Kong Watch as “critical” the People’s Republic of China.
High-profile reception
Chau proceeded to cite several more Apple Daily articles and text messages sent between Chan and Lai March 2019, months before protests broke out over a since-axed extradition bill.
Chau showed the court a text message from Lai asking Chan to use news of former chief secretary Anson Chan meeting with then-US vice president Mike Pence in March 2019 “to maximum effect,” then showed the court a front-page article titled “Pence met with Mrs. Chan showing concerns for human rights in Hong Kong”.
Chan said she carried out Lai’s instruction by having the article in a “prominent place, with larger coverage.” The story also included a scholar’s analysis of the meeting as a “high-profile reception” meant to exert pressure on Beijing, she said.
Chau also cited WhatsApp records indicating that the photo of Chan and Pence in the front-page story was sent to Lai by former Civic Party member and lawmaker Dennis Kwok, adding that the former chief secretary had attended the meeting with members of the now-defunct pro-democracy party.
In court, ex-publisher Chan said she was not aware that the photo was originally sent by the democrat. Now based in the US, Kwok is among 13 self-exiled activists wanted by Hong Kong authorities over alleged national security offences.
Chow added that the main story was accompanied by a “sidebar” – a supplementary, analytical piece on US-China relations. Asked why that story was chosen for the front page, Chan said it was “newsworthy.”
“Of course, Mr Lai saying that we had to play it up was one of the factors,” she added.
In another article, titled “Jimmy Lai: if the ordinance is amended the media will be out of business”, the media mogul was quoted as saying the extradition law would be worse than Article 23, the city’s own national security legislation, while he took to the streets in a protest that April.
Asked why Lai drew that comparison, Chan told the court her employer was concerned the extradition law would be used for political prosecution.
Business sector ‘cowards’
Chau also presented messages from Lai ordering Chan to report on the “dangers that Hong Kong businessmen face in the Chinese mainland … so that the pro-establishment camp dare not make a rush move.”
“This may be our trump card against these cowards,” Lai added. He was referring to the Hong Kong businessmen in mainland China, Chan told the court.
Chau then showed the court another article – a political gossip column that Chan confirmed was penned by the paper’s politics reporters under the pseudonym Kwai To.
“Pro-democracy activists have claimed that more people in various sectors are opposed to amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, especially in the business and professional sectors, but most of them dare not state their positions openly,” read the article, titled “Rallying business professionals to take to the streets on July 1”.
Asked if the paper published the column on the business sector’s concerns over the extradition law as a direct result of Lai’s suggestion, Chan said she could not be sure whether that was the case, or if it just so happened that someone from the democratic camp had spoken to one of the paper’s reporters.
Chau also showed the court an article titled “Talking to senior members of the legal sector about the draconian extradition law” in which an anonymous lawyer was interviewed about the extradition law.
Democratic Party member Lee Wing-tat told Lai over WhatsApp that the content of the article was “very rich” and suggested that the publisher “[write] down key points and analyses in detail, day by day, so that readers can easily digest.”
Lai forwarded the message to Chan over WhatsApp, asking: “Shall we handle this as [Lee] proposed?” That, however, was a suggestion rather than a direct order, Chan told the court.
Lai has pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and one charge under the colonial-era sedition law, and faces life in prison if convicted.
He has been detained since December 2020, and is currently serving a five-year, nine-month sentence for fraud in a maximum security prison.
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