Next Digital shutters

Michael Shum

Next Digital will cease operation today, according to an internal memo.

The memo said its assets in three bank accounts remained frozen under an ongoing national security investigation.

Next Digital was the publisher of Apple Daily, an activist-backed newspaper that folded last Thursday, days after its newsroom was raided by national security officers.

Five Next Digital and Apple Daily executives have been arrested for allegedly colluding with foreign forces, of which two were charged and refused bail. The rest were released on bail.

Two chief editorial writers at Apple Daily were arrested days later on the same charge and released on bail.

Meanwhile, newly promoted Chief Secretary John Lee Ka-chiu said yesterday that authorities have to step up their intelligence-gathering methods to guard against external forces.

On the first anniversary of the national security law enacted on June 30 last year, he told state media China Central Television that order has been restored but the city has to guard against security risks in the future.

"Many countries are worried about China's might and peaceful rise and are conspiring to attack China," Lee said.

He added: "Hong Kong's prospects will be optimistic if the government takes an active approach in promoting national security education."

Lau Siu-kai, vice president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said there are still anti-Communist Party forces in the SAR and expects crackdowns to continue for at least two years.

"To construct a system beneficial to governance, there is still a lot of political work that the government has to do," he said.

But the crackdown has raised eyebrows around the world, with human rights group Amnesty International saying the security law has created a "human rights emergency."

In a report, Amnesty said Hong Kong is "on a rapid path to becoming a police state. From politics to culture, education to media, the law has infected every part of Hong Kong society and fomented a climate of fear."

Separately, Medecins Inspires disbanded yesterday, making it the second doctors' group to do so within a week. It gave no reason for the dissolution.

michael.shum@singtaonewscorp.com