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Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai arrested under national security law – The Globe and Mail

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Police lead Hong kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai away from his home after arresting him under the new national security law in Hong Kong, on Aug. 10, 2020.

VERNON YUEN/AFP/Getty Images

The new national security regime imposed by Beijing in Hong Kong has been used to detain one of the city’s best-known democracy advocates, with hundreds of police officers arresting media tycoon Jimmy Lai and raiding his newspaper’s headquarters.

Mr. Lai, a billionaire who has enraged Beijing with his public criticism of the Communist Party, was taken in handcuffs from his home early Monday. He is accused of colluding with foreign powers, a new crime under the national security law that came into force July 1.

Police also arrested two of Mr. Lai’s sons and four of his top executives, including Cheung Kim-hung, the chief executive of media company Next Digital, and Chow Tat-kuen, the company’s chief financial officer. Everyone at the company taken into custody was denied bail, said Mark Simon, the top aide to Mr. Lai, who is the founder and majority owner of Next Digital, which publishes newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

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Some 200 officers were deployed for the operation, which included a raid of Apple Daily, the newspaper Mr. Lai founded. Police seized about 20 boxes of material, Apple Daily reported, saying officers also tried to seize servers – a move staff attempted to block. The police operation continued into Monday evening. A live video stream showed officers questioning reporters and examining papers on their desks.

Police ultimately took some servers, as well as three boxes of documents from the sports department, Mr. Simon said in an interview. The raid, he said, is “the start of an effort to shut us down.”

Also arrested Monday under the national security law was Agnes Chow, a young politician who has worked closely with Joshua Wong, the city’s most prominent pro-democracy activist.

A total of 10 people were arrested, Hong Kong police said, on charges of foreign collusion and conspiracy to defraud.

The police denied any political motive for the arrests, saying they were related to criminal acts and not an attack on the news media.

But critics said Monday marks a new stage in the changes sweeping Hong Kong, as Beijing asserts greater control. Over the summer, pro-democracy scholars have been fired, legislative candidates have been disqualified, an election was postponed for a year and publishers and libraries alike have rushed to censor content now considered subversive or secessionist. Police have outlawed slogans and songs and have arrested young people carrying flags calling for independence.

Mr. Lai numbers among Beijing’s most hated figures in Hong Kong, a man who has used his social standing and wealth in the service of democracy – unlike other billionaires in the city, many of whom have been unwilling to risk the financial consequences of angering China’s leaders. Mr. Lai has been called a “traitor” and a “force of evil” by Communist Party-controlled press. In April, he was among 15 people arrested on charges of organizing and participating in protests – which police called unlawful assembles – that roiled Hong Kong last year. In late July, he reported being followed by unknown people.

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Last week, the United States imposed sanctions on Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and 10 other city officials. China responded Monday with sanctions against 11 U.S. officials, including senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.

In the midst of the deepening rift between Beijing and Washington, the Hong Kong Liaison Office, which represents the mainland in the city, lashed out at people it accused of celebrating the imposition of sanctions on the city’s officials.

“These people are unabashedly arrogant and once again unintentionally revealed their own evil design – that they are the agents the U.S. deploys in Hong Kong, and they are the pawns of the U.S. in messing up Hong Kong,” the office wrote in a statement Monday.

“These people have completely betrayed and walked away from their country and nationality,” the statement continued. “These people are doomed to be indelibly nailed to the pillar of shame in our history.”

The statement did not name Mr. Lai, who has openly called for the backing of Western democracies for Hong Kong. In a May 29 New York Times article, in which he presaged his own imprisonment, he wrote: “As we enter this new phase of our struggle, we need the support of the West, especially the United States.” Last year he travelled to Washington, D.C., to meet with Vice-President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

On Twitter, Mr. Lai has pilloried Chinese President Xi Jinping, calling him “the most absolute dictator in human history”; praised Mr. Pompeo for his critique of China’s leaders; and raised the alarm over the national security law that has now ensnared him.

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Hong Kong “is under siege,” he wrote July 29. A day later, he said the city is now “worse than China.” Many in Hong Kong share Western values and believe in human rights, “and our dignity instinctively rebels against tyranny,” he said. As a result, he predicted, Hong Kong is perceived by Beijing “like Xinjiang and will be treated so” – a reference to the northwestern region of China, where authorities have placed hundreds of thousands of people, many of them Muslim Uyghurs, in centres for forced political indoctrination and skills training.

Leaders in Hong Kong and Beijing have sought to reassure the public that the national security law would affect only a small number of people – those who pose a genuine threat.

But with the arrest of Mr. Lai, “the message is clear that this is a law that is not just meant for spies and bomb makers,” said Michael Vidler, a Hong Kong solicitor who has represented some of the city’s most prominent democracy activists. Instead, it can be used against “anybody who is perceived by Hong Kong authorities to be speaking out.”

Mr. Lai was arrested 40 days after the law came into force.

“It is just so terribly sad to see, in such a short period of time, Hong Kong apparently tumbling over the abyss,” Mr. Vidler said.

The new law pledges to protect freedom of speech and of the press.

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But the arrest of Mr. Lai and other executives, “and the raid on the newsroom, are a direct assault on Hong Kong’s press freedom and signal a dark new phase in the erosion of the city’s global reputation,” the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong, said in a statement. Among those arrested Monday was Wilson Li, a former student activist who has worked as a freelance contributor to Britain’s ITV News.

“Today’s events raise worries that such actions are being used to erase basic freedoms in Hong Kong,” the FCC said.

The formal charges against Mr. Lai accuse him of breaking the law on foreign collusion and fraud. But the “surprise attack” against him, his family and his company “actually reflects the government’s intention to contain and control the media and publishing freedoms in Hong Kong,” said Wu Qiang, a former Tsinghua University scholar who is an expert in Chinese social movements.

“In short, Beijing’s definition of national security doesn’t leave any room for freedom, and Beijing wants Hong Kong people and the world to hear it clearly.”

The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, the territory’s current and former police chiefs and eight other top officials for what Washington says is their role in curtailing political freedoms in the territory. Reuters

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CTV National News: Social media giants sued – CTV News

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CTV National News: Social media giants sued  CTV News

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India’s media – captured and censored

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Across almost every form of media in India – social, broadcast and print – Narendra Modi and the BJP hold sway.

With India amid a national election campaign, its news media is in sharp focus. Until recently it was believed that the sheer diversity of outlets ensured a range of perspectives, but now, India’s mainstream media has largely been co-opted by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Just how did the media in India get to this point and what does it mean for the upcoming elections?

Featuring:

Ravish Kumar – Former Host, NDTV
Shashi Shekhar Vempati – Former CEO, Prasar Bharati
Pramod Raman – Chief Editor, MediaOne
Amy Kazmin – Former South Asia Bureau Chief, Financial Times
Meena Kotwal – Founder, The Mooknayak

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Social media lawsuit launched by Ontario school boards

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Premier Doug Ford says that lawsuits launched by four Ontario school boards against multiple social media platforms are “nonsense” and risk becoming a distraction to the work that really matters.

The school boards, including three in the Greater Toronto Area, have launched lawsuits seeking $4.5 billion in damages against Snapchat, TikTok, and Meta, the owner of both Facebook and Instagram, for creating products that they allege negligently interfere with student learning and have caused “widespread disruption to the education system.”

But at an unrelated news conference in Ottawa on Friday, Ford said that he “disagrees” with the legal action and worries it could take the focus away from “the core values of education.”

“Let’s focus on math, reading and writing. That is what we need to do, put all the resources into the kids,” he said. “What are they spending lawyers fees to go after these massive companies that have endless cash to fight this? Let’s focus on the kids, not this other nonsense that they are looking to fight in court.”

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Four separate but similar statements of claim were filed in Ontario’s Superior Court of JusticSocial media lawsuit launched by Ontario school boards pervasive problems such as distraction, social withdrawal, cyberbullying, a rapid escalation of aggression, and mental health challenges,” Colleen Russell-Rawlins, the director of education with the Toronto District School Board, said in a news release issued Thursday.

“It is imperative that we take steps to ensure the well-being of our youth. We are calling for measures to be implemented to mitigate these harms and prioritize the mental health and academic success of our future generation.”

The school boards are represented by Toronto-based law firm Neinstein LLP and the news release states that school boards “will not be responsible for any costs related to the lawsuit unless a successful outcome is reached.”

These lawsuits come as hundreds of school districts in the United States file similar suits.

“A strong education system is the foundation of our society and our community. Social media products and the changes in behaviour, judgement and attention that they cause pose a threat to that system and to the student population our schools serve,” Duncan Embury, the head of litigation at Neinstein LLP, said in the new release.

“We are proud to support our schools and students in this litigation with the goal of holding social media giants accountable and creating meaningful change.”

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