Clamor for copies of Apple Daily's final edition

Supporters of the irreverent Apple Daily waited patiently from late Wednesday night to buy their copy of the final issue of the newspaper, which is folding after a 26-year run that often rattled the establishment.

The newspaper's final print run is a million copies.

The daily, featuring an apple on its masthead and published by the jailed tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, has no financial resources to continue business operations. Trading in the shares of publisher Next Digital has been suspended since June 17. Its last remaining assets were seized by the government under the national security law this week and its editor was arrested and charged.

Many Hong Kong residents lined up to buy a copy from about 11:00pm Wednesday after Next Digital formally announced the paper's closure.
Some newspaper vendors said the first stack of newspapers was delivered at about 1:00am.

Hundreds of people queued up at an Argyle Street newspaper stand past midnight. 
 
A man and his son queued up for two hours and bought a total of 20 copies altogether to “support freedom of press”. 
 
“The two-hour queue was in fact therapeutic - we didn’t want it to end so soon,” the 57-year-old man said. 
 
Despite their helplessness over the Apple Daily’s shut-down, they told the newspaper to ‘keep it up’. 
 
“We can keep the spirit of Apple Daily alive by spreading it like Apple seeds,” the son in his 20s said. 
 
Asked about their favourite pages of the newspaper, they said it was political comics. 

In a letter to readers, Apple Daily admitted its imperfections and wondered "what will Hong Kong be like without us?”

The paper thanked its loyal readers and said it had  "fought a good war.''

"I have tens of thousands of words in my heart but I am speechless at this moment," Ip Yut-kin, chairman of the paper's parent company Next Digital, told AFP on Wednesday.

The United States, the European Union, as well as well as media organizations have condemned the efforts to shut down the publisher. 

But Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam  has assured there is no threat to media freedoms.

The European Union said shutting down the paper, "seriously undermines media freedom.''

"The forced closure of Apple Daily by the Hong Kong authorities is a chilling blow to freedom of expression in Hong Kong," British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement, Wednesday.

"It is crystal clear that the powers under the National Security Law are being used as a tool to curtail freedoms and punish dissent -- rather than keep public order," he said.