Apple Daily halts English service, finance news

Apple Daily halted more of its services on Tuesday, just a day after warning that the media outlet’s entire operations could come to an end by the weekend.

A brief message on the newspaper’s English-language web pages said: “This concludes the updates from Apple Daily English. Thank you for your support”.

The newspaper only began its English service last June, offering news articles, opinion pieces, interviews and satirical pieces.

The paper’s online financial news has also come to an end, hours after the final live news show was aired on Monday night.

Apple Daily had told staff that unless the Security Bureau releases some of the company’s assets that were frozen last week as part of a national security probe, the newspaper would close down this Saturday.

It said employees could resign immediately without working a notice period.

The chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, Ronson Chan, told RTHK that many Apple Daily workers had resigned, particularly those in the instant news section.

Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai, editor-in-chief Ryan Law and Cheung Kim-hung, the chief executive of parent company Next Digital, are all currently behind bars, awaiting trial for alleged national security offences.