Hong Kong arrests newspaper editors for 'foreign conspiracy': Report

5 journos held, $18-mn assets frozen; China warns media outlets, hails move

Hong Kong arrested the three most senior editors at Jimmy Lai’s pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper along with two top executives for suspected breaches of its sweeping national security law and ‘foreign conspiracy’, generating fresh concerns about diminishing press freedom in the former British colony.

Those arrested (total 5) included Next Digital Chief Executive Officer and Apple Daily publisher Cheung Kim-hung and Chief Operating Officer Royston Chow, as well as the paper’s Editor-in-Chief Ryan Law and deputy editors Chan Pui-man and Cheung Chi-wai. Around 500 police officers descended on the newspaper’s Hong Kong headquarters on Thursday morning, with Apple Daily tweeting that