WAN-IFRA denounces sentences for Jimmy Lai and Apple Daily executives in Hong Kong
A Hong Kong court handed Jimmy Lai, the 78-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, a 20-year prison sentence on Monday, 9th February under Hong Kong’s national security law – the longest imposed since authorities enacted the law in 2020.
The court also sentenced six former Apple Daily senior staff members, who were arrested in 2021 and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to collude with foreign forces in 2022 in return for clemency on another charge, to terms ranging from 6 years and 3 months to 10 years. They included Ryan Law (editor-in-chief) 10 years; Lam Man-chung (executive editor-in-chief) 10 years; Fung Wai-kong (managing editor of English edition) 10 years; Cheung Kim-hung (CEO) 6 years and 9 months; Chan Pui-man (associate publisher) 7 years; and Yeung Ching-kee (lead editorial writer) 7 years and 3 months.
Lai, one of Hong Kong’s most successful media tycoons and a prominent pro-democracy campaigner, was convicted on 15th December 2025 on two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one count of conspiracy to publish seditious material, in what was condemned by press freedom advocates as a sham trial. The court labeled him the “mastermind and driving force” behind the alleged conspiracies.
At the time of his conviction, David Walmsley, World Editors Forum President and Editor in Chief of Canada’s Globe and Mail, called for Lai to be allowed to leave Hong Kong: “Free Jimmy Lai… You have made your point.”
Monday’s sentence effectively means Lai will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
Lai, who is also a British citizen, suffers from deteriorating health including hypertension, diabetes, and cataracts and has spent much of his detention in solitary confinement with restricted daylight access.
Lai was originally arrested in December 2020 under the Beijing-imposed national security law that has been increasingly used to quell protests and silence dissent, including the work of journalists.
Lai and the staff of the shuttered Apple Daily were awarded WAN-IFRA’s Golden Pen of Freedom in 2021 to highlight the fears and challenges of journalists in Hong Kong and the region, in the face of heightening curbs on their ability to do their jobs credibly and independently.
For years, Lai had been an outspoken critic of Beijing’s control over Hong Kong and a high-profile supporter of the pro-democracy movement, making him and his media company regular targets for the authorities.
Until its final print edition on 24th June 2021, Apple Daily was one of Hong Kong’s most popular Chinese-language newspapers, with a daily circulation of 86,000. Hong Kong authorities used the controversial national security law to raid its offices and freeze its assets, which forced the paper’s closure after 26 years of publication.
“A journalist’s responsibility [is] to uphold justice,” he wrote presciently from his jail cell in April 2021. “The era is falling apart before us, and it is time for us to stand tall.”
WAN-IFRA members continue to stand with Jimmy Lai and the Apple Daily executives sentenced this week. “While justice may have catastrophically failed them, the international community, friends and colleagues from across the industry remain steadfast in calls for their release,” said Andrew Heslop, WAN-IFRA’s Executive Director for Media Freedom.
China ranks as the world’s worst jailer of journalists with at least 51 currently behind bars, including eight in Hong Kong.
