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Three companies linked to the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper have become “prohibited organisations” after the Hong Kong government removed them from the corporate registry.
Headquarters of Next Digital, the parent company of Apple Daily, in December 2024. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.The government said on Tuesday that Apple Daily Limited, Apple Daily Printing Limited, and AD Internet Limited were struck off the Companies Register by order of the acting chief executive, Eric Chan, and the Executive Council, the city’s top decision-making body.
“The Registrar of Companies has struck the three companies relating to Apple Daily off the Companies Register, and on publication of notice in the Gazette, the companies shall be dissolved and become ‘prohibited organizations,'” it said in a statement.
The notice was gazetted on Tuesday.
The three firms were tried and convicted alongside the Apple Daily founder, media mogul Jimmy Lai, in his high-profile national security case. Lai was sentenced to 20 years behind bars while the firms were each fined HK$3,004,500.
The de-registrations were carried out under the Beijing-imposed national security law and the ordinance governing the winding-up of companies in the city.
“Whether pre- or post-HKNSL, [Jimmy] Lai Chee-ying utilised Apple Daily’s platform to publish seditious articles, and requested foreign countries to impose sanctions or blockades, or engage in other hostile activities against” China and Hong Kong, a government spokesperson said.
Jimmy Lai in 2020. Photo: HKFP.“The senior management of Apple Daily were fully aware of Lai Chee-ying’s intention and provided support by executing his editorial directions,” the spokesperson added.
Any person who acts for a prohibited organisation or gives any aid to them will be liable on conviction to a maximum fine of HK$1 million and 14 years’ imprisonment, the government spokesperson said, citing Article 23, the city’s homegrown national security law.
Founded in 1995, Apple Daily was forced to shut down in June 2021 after authorities raided its headquarters, arrested senior staff, and froze its assets.
Six former Apple Daily executives were jailed alongside Lai for up to 10 years. Two of them, Fung Wai-kong and Lam Man-chung, have lodged an appeal.
The jailing of the media tycoon and his staff has drawn international rebuke. United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk deplored the 20-year jail sentence handed to Lai, demanding that the verdict be “promptly quashed”.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong officials and lawmakers have lauded the jail term. Chief Executive John Lee said Lai “deserves his punishment,” adding that the tycoon had “committed numerous heinous crimes and his evil deeds were beyond measure.”
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