Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai encouraged Apple Daily to play up news of Beijing’s alleged cover-up of Covid infections in early 2020, court hears
- ‘Seeing that the [Hong Kong] government is ignoring our interests and suppressing us, we have to stand up against it,’ Lai wrote in 2020
- Trial of media tycoon has entered 27th day with former tabloid senior executive Chan Pui-man testifying against her ex-boss
During the examination of Chan Pui-man, ex-associate publisher of the now-closed newspaper and an accomplice witness, the prosecution presented several articles written by Lai in an attempt to demonstrate his influence in news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
The veteran journalist was charged alongside Lai with conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the national security law. She pleaded guilty in November 2020 and was testifying against her 76-year-old former boss as the high-profile trial entered its 27th day.
The articles brought up in West Kowloon Court were published amid the first coronavirus wave in mainland China in early 2020, with Chan confirming to the court that the tabloid called the novel disease “Wuhan pneumonia” in its news reports at that time.
The first cluster of cases were reported on December 31, 2019, in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province.
Among the articles was one titled “The plague of Wuhan, the death knell of the Chinese Communist Party”, published on February 9, 2020, with Lai writing: “Seeing that the [Hong Kong] government is ignoring our interests and suppressing us, we have to stand up against it.
“Under a haze of authoritarianism, the government has become the embodiment of totalitarianism. Hongkongers must save our Hong Kong by ourselves.”