Newspaper's 'murder' marks death of press freedom in Hong Kong The persecution of Apple Daily has undermined the rule of law and must be challenged by the international community Published: June 28, 2021 03:53 AM GMT ▾ Updated: June 28, 2021 03:55 AM GMT Last week Hong Kong saw not only the closure of a newspaper but the death of press freedom. The city’s most popular newspaper and the only remaining Chinese-language, mass circulation pro-democracy daily publication, Apple Daily, published its final edition on June 24. It printed a million copies, and they sold out within hours. The death of Apple Daily was not because it ran out of money or markets. On the contrary, it had 600,000 paid subscribers and more than US$50 million in the bank — enough to cover another 18 months. It closed because the Hong Kong government froze its bank accounts, making it impossible to pay salaries and bills, after arresting its editor-in-chief Ryan Law and four other senior executives.