Section head feared sack if 'articles didn't fit Lai stance'

Eunice Lam

"If I insisted on publishing articles that did not adhere to Apple Daily's political stance on the newspaper's forum page, I would be fired," former editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee told a court yesterday.

He was testifying on the 43rd day of Next Digital founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying's national security trial, which saw the defense finishing its cross-examination of Yeung, 58, who used to manage the forum section.

Following Yeung as a prosecution witness today will be Andy Li Yu-hin, one of 12 people caught while trying to flee to Taiwan in August 2020.

Senior counsel Robert Pang Yiu-hung, for the 76-year-old Lai, showed chat records between Yeung and commentator Masaharu Takahashi in December 2020.

Takahashi had proposed writing an article about foreign minister Wang Yi, to which Yeung replied that although the daily seldom intervened in writers' topics, he would consider finding another writer to replace him if most readers didn't agree with his views.

Yeung told the court it was a soft warning, as he was afraid of being fired over publication of articles that didn't fit in with Apple Daily's stance. "There were precedents for that," he said.

Yeung said articles that aligned with the newspaper's stance would be published in a way that "played close to the edge" but without breaching the law.

During re-examination by the prosecution, Yeung said that as a 30-year industry veteran, he felt editorial independence was only a "myth" as media outlets had to have a political stance to keep their readerships loyal.

For him, the stances of Apple Daily as set out by Lai were like a birdcage.

"I would use 'bird-cage democracy' to describe the stances of Apple Daily and other similar newspaper publications, as we only enjoyed autonomy within a birdcage," Yeung said. "We had a certain level of independence but couldn't exceed a certain framework."

Yeung also recalled that in a dinner at Lai's home on June 23, 2020, the tycoon said he wasn't concerned about being arrested as that would only fuel US, UK and European Union attention and sanctions.

Under cross-examination, Yeung said he distinctly remembered Lai using the word "sanctions" but admitted he didn't jot down any notes.