Hong Kong Journalists Association slams ex-chief executive Leung Chun-ying for putting pressure on Apple Daily advertisers
- Association says former city chief ‘was suggesting the public should stop buying products from those advertisers’
- In turn, Leung blasts columnist Lee Yee for exceeding ‘the fundamental ethical bottom line’
The Hong Kong Journalists Association has expressed “deep concern” about a former city leader’s public spat with companies that advertise in a local Chinese newspaper.
The association spoke out on Friday after Leung Chun-ying, a former Hong Kong chief executive, used his Facebook page for nearly a week to “bring unnecessary distress” to companies that had placed advertisements in the Apple Daily .
According to the statement, Leung “was suggesting the public should stop buying products from those advertisers as a way to exert pressure on them”.
Leung also used the social media network to accuse the newspaper’s columnist Lee Yee of insulting Peter Wong Man-kong, a veteran Hong Kong deputy to the National People’s Congress who died this month, and victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Leung wrote that Lee’s comments in his articles had “exceeded the fundamental ethical bottom line”, and that he hoped to “seek justice” for the deceased.
On his Facebook page, Leung uploaded images of advertisements that clearly showed the names of the companies that advertised in the Apple Daily. They included a health supplements company, a wine retailer and a jeweller.