A veteran Hong Kong journalist was yesterday arrested by national security police for allegedly conspiring to publish “seditious materials,” police said.
The arrest is the latest blow to the media in Hong Kong, which has seen its freedom rating plummet as Beijing cracks down on dissent.
Allan Au (區家麟), a 54-year-old reporter and journalism lecturer, was arrested in a dawn raid by the Hong Kong National Security Police unit, multiple local media outlets reported.
A senior police source confirmed Au’s arrest on a charge of “conspiracy to publish seditious materials.”
Police later confirmed the arrest of a 54-year-old on the same charge in a statement that did not name Au, which is local practice.
“Further arrests may be made,” the statement said.
Au is a former columnist for Stand News, an online news platform that was shuttered in December last year after authorities froze the company’s assets using the National Security Law.
Two other senior employees of Stand News have already been charged with sedition.
National security charges have also been brought against jailed pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai (黎智英) and six former senior executives of the Apple Daily.
Once Hong Kong’s most popular tabloid, the Apple Daily collapsed last year when its newsroom was raided and assets were frozen under the National Security Law.
Soon after Stand News was shut down, Au began to write “good morning” each day on his Facebook page to confirm his safety.
One of the territory’s most experienced local columnists, he was a Knight fellow at Stanford University in 2005 and earned a doctorate from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Au in 2017 published a book about censorship in Hong Kong titled Freedom Under 20 Shades of Shadow.
Au spent more than a decade working for RTHK, Hong Kong’s government broadcaster, running a current affairs show, but he was axed last year after the authorities declared a shake-up that began transforming the once editorially independent broadcaster into something more resembling Chinese state media.
SEASONAL MORATORIUM: The boat was boarded and seized by the China Coast Guard east-northeast of Liaoluo Bay outside restricted waters on July 2 Four crew members of a Taiwanese fishing vessel detained by Chinese authorities since July 2 are expected to be released today, but the return dates of the captain and the boat remain uncertain, a former official said. The Fujian Provincial People’s Government’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) is likely to first release the crew members today, including a Taiwanese surnamed Ting (丁) and three Indonesians, former Penghu County Council deputy speaker Chen Shuang-chuan (陳雙全) said yesterday. They are to take a boat to the median line of the Taiwan Strait, where they would be picked up by the Da Jin Man No. 96
China appears to be using a new type of BZK-005 drone that might be capable of disrupting the radio communications in the Taiwanese military and causing the radar system to malfunction, a military source said yesterday. The military is closely monitoring traces of this upgraded drone after the Japanese Ministry of Defense recently captured images of a BZK-005 drone, which had a large number of antennas under the nose of the aircraft and a pod of unknown purpose attached under the belly of the craft. Defense experts in other countries had warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has bolstered
CHAMPION: Lin Yu-ting overcame adversity and intense international scrutiny on her path to Olympic victory. She said it means so much to win the gold for her country Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) emerged as Olympic champion in the women’s 57kg (featherweight) division on Saturday in Paris (Sunday in Taipei), despite facing online abuse due to gender misconceptions over the past two weeks. Lin defeated Julia Szeremeta of Poland by a unanimous 5-0 decision to clinch the gold, completing a long journey of redemption after being eliminated from the Tokyo Games in 2021 in her opening bout. Lin, who has been competing in women’s events since her boxing debut in September 2013, is the first Taiwanese boxer to win gold, after three other Taiwanese female boxers earned bronze medals in
MESSAGE TO THE WORLD: A letter by overseas Taiwanese organizations also called on the international community to ‘support democracy’ by opposing Chinese pressure Twenty-four overseas Taiwanese organizations in a joint letter urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to stop infringing on spectators’ freedom of speech and allow them to display Taiwan signage. The letter, addressed to IOC president Thomas Bach and members of the IOC executive board, was led by the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA), along with 23 other overseas Taiwanese organizations from the US, Japan, Europe, Argentina and Costa Rica. During the Olympic games, signs or items with the words “Taiwan” on them have been snatched away by Olympic security staff or Chinese spectators. Some spectators holding such signs have been forcibly