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The poison Apple fell: a deserving end to a treasonous organization
First Voice

Editor's note: CGTN's First Voice provides instant commentary on breaking stories. The daily column clarifies emerging issues and better defines the news agenda, offering a Chinese perspective on the latest global events.

How would you describe a newspaper or media organization of your nationality publishing editorials calling for other countries to sanction yours? How would you describe one whose founder is more inclined to break the law than following it? How would you describe it if that paper, with a history of attracting public attention by heavily featuring violence or grotesque caricaturing the subject under the report, expands its profile by facilitating unrest and inciting chaos?

As Apple Daily shuts down and foreign media and state officials begin to throw rocks at China's legal system for "suppressing press freedom," these questions may have eluded their doctrinal thinking about China and the press. Quartz's report says that Hong Kong's secretary for security told the press that Apple Daily was raided over coverage that called for foreign countries to impose sanctions on China which amounts to conspiracy to collude with foreign forces. "It is unclear if he was referring to articles or commentary," Quartz wrote without further illustration of the pieces in question as if a demonstration of likely pieces is difficult or impossible.

First Voice looked through some of Apple Daily's publication history, and it didn't take a lot of effort to find some of those pieces. The paper constantly published columnist articles that talk about furthering America or the West's interests while hailing any hostility against China and the Chinese Communist Party. "The struggle between China and the United States is of the utmost importance. At its core, it is a struggle between authoritarianism and freedom. We should thus welcome any steps such as this one that furthers the interests of freedom," wrote Columnist Tom Rogan on June 13, 2021. And a piece on June 12 by Joseph Long described the G7 summit as a "good opportunity" to tackling a "more assertive, expansionist, malicious, and genocidal Chinese regime."

Police escort Cheung Chi-wai, digital platform director, at the headquarters of Apple Daily newspaper and its publisher Next Digital Ltd., in Hong Kong, China, June 17, 2021. /CFP

Police escort Cheung Chi-wai, digital platform director, at the headquarters of Apple Daily newspaper and its publisher Next Digital Ltd., in Hong Kong, China, June 17, 2021. /CFP

It is futile to dismiss these as experts' opinions and "do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial board." On December 11, 2020, Apple Daily's editorial board published an editorial piece with the headline "To protect human rights, democratic nations should impose sanctions against China." "Democratic nations in the world should be united … they should strike a firm stance to curb the continued expansion of the CCP in the face of its regional hegemony and behavior that damages stability," the editorial wrote.

As a Chinese paper, calling for other countries to impose sanctions on China is as treasonous as treason gets. In an interview with Global Times, Louis Chen, general secretary of Hong Kong Legal Exchange Foundation, said that "the paper takes the national security law as nothing by continuing violating the law and it has gone far beyond ethical and journalistic standards."

Every news organization's Editorial have their own believes and points of views through which they see the events or carry out editorial duties on articles. In the U.S., there's Wall Street Journal that's conservative and New York Times which leans liberal. They've published articles that appraise government actions in various ways. They've been critical to government policies that they believe are not best serving the people. But blatantly calling for foreign government to intervene in U.S.'s political process to achieve certain outcomes is unheard off.

Treasonous actions deserve corresponding treatments. Apple Daily is shut down because of the betrayal to its profession, to the law and to the nationality which it belongs to. It will serve as a warning to those who foolishly think they could mask sedition under freedom of the press. Freedom is crucial. Unfettered freedom that evades the rule of law and undermines stability will not be tolerated.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)

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