On June 24, 2021, the pro-democracy, anti-tyranny Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily was forced to close, one consequence of an ugly new “national security” law designed to trample dissent, judicial independence, and meaningful elections. The paper’s absence is still felt (Focus Taiwan, June 24, 2026).
Founded by media tycoon Jimmy Lai in 1995 and once one of Hong Kong’s largest Chinese-language newspapers, Apple Daily printed a record 1 million copies in its final edition [shown above].
Michael, a pseudonym for a reporter who worked at Apple Daily for about 10 years until its last day, told CNA that the world felt “different” after the newspaper ceased publication.
He said Apple Daily’s high circulation and visibility at newsstands allowed it to shape public discussion through reporting angles that critics often called sensationalist but supporters valued as critical and distinctive.
In contrast, he said, mainstream media outlets in Hong Kong today tend to approach stories from similar angles—a shift that has become more pronounced since the national security law took effect in June 2020.
“When you walk past a newsstand, everything looks the same. You don’t even feel like reading it,” he said.
Echoing Michael, a longtime Apple Daily reader surnamed Lau said he has shifted to online media over the past five years because mainstream outlets have become more similar in their coverage and perspectives.
One online publication trying to fill the gap is Pulse HK, product of a merger of two other publications founded by Hong Kong exiles, The Chaser News and Photon Media. Reporters Without Borders has interviewed Pulse HK cofounder Shirley Leung, who was editor-in-chief of Photon Media and a senior editor at Apple Daily.
Leung says that by relying on journalists based in the UK, North America, and Taiwan, Pulse HK can provide “round-the-clock news.”
She says that today, “traditional local Hong Kong media outlets tend to report news that aligns with the government, lacking critical angles and largely becoming mouthpieces for the authorities. Meanwhile, small independent outlets are striving to survive while facing harassment through tax audits and the targeting of reporters’ family members.”
Operating outside of China has not made Pulse HK and its predecessors immune to harassment by the Chinese Communist Party.
In September 2024, The Chaser News reportedly faced “government-backed attacks” on its company email account. Before its launch, in August 2025, state-run propaganda media Ta Kung Pao attacked Pulse HK, claiming that it is part of a “war of ideological propaganda”. Pulse HK has also faced hacking attempts in the first half of 2026, with its website detecting multiple cyberattacks. Hackers attempted to breach the site and shut it down. However, security measures were already in place, and the attacks failed.
CCP saboteurs have also gone after Pulse HK’s fundraising. Just this month, “a wave of suspicious donations from accounts based in Africa, South America, and other regions”—followed by immediate withdrawals of those donations—caused a third-party fundraising platform to flag the activity as suspicious and then to summarily kill the fundraising campaign. No investigation, no explanation.
Pulse HK and/or Reporters Without Borders decided not to name the culpable fundraising platform. It would be better to spread the word about how it so easily submitted to assailants. Let it lose customers to alternative fundraising sites that enforce better policies.
