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Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying reportedly gave explicit instruction to drum up the anti-extradition movement, also ordering subordinates to “exaggerate” certain news to encourage people to take to the street, former publisher Cheung Kim-hung said on Monday.
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This came as Lai’s defense lawyer, Robert Pang Yiu-hung, started his cross-examination of Cheung. Today was the eighth day Cheung, a prosecution accomplice witness, testified against Lai, 76, at the West Kowloon Court as the trial entered the 18th day.
Cheung told the court that he and Lai shared the same values, including democracy, freedom of speech and the press, opposition to authoritarianism, and a strong belief in the media's role in holding the government accountable.
He also believes that other former senior executives of Apple Daily, including Chan Pui-man, Ryan Law Wai-kwong, and Fung Wai-kong, shared the same values.
When asked by Pang whether the shared values could mean that Lai was not required to set out instructions for their work, Cheung disagreed, saying that the instructions given by Lai were specific and not just about values.
He mentioned that during the anti-extradition movement, Lai instructed Apple Daily reporters to wait for him at certain locations where he disembarked from his ride to take photos and conduct interviews. These would then be published in their newspaper, while Lai would instruct them on how to drum up the news to encourage more citizens to take to the streets.
Cheung continued that even if others shared the same values as Lai, they would not have made such a move if Lai had not given clear editorial instructions.
The defense further questioned Cheung about whether it would be possible to refuse to follow Lai's instructions if they disagreed with them - a move to exercise their freedom of speech, to which Cheung responded that it was not permissible to do so.
