Press Freedom
CPJ Updates
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- 2024 is deadliest year for journalists in CPJ history; almost 70% killed by Israel
- In record year, China, Israel, and Myanmar are world’s leading jailers of journalists
- Haiti, Israel most likely to let journalists’ murders go unpunished, CPJ 2024 impunity index shows
- No justice for journalists targeted by Israel despite strong evidence of war crime
- On Edge: What the US election could mean for journalists and global press freedom
- Forced to flee: Exiled journalists face unsafe passage and transnational repression
- Israel-Gaza war brings 2023 journalist killings to devastating high
- 2023 prison census: Jailed journalist numbers near record high; Israel imprisonments spike
Reporter Without Borders
OPC Condemns Hong Kong Court’s Guilty Verdict Against Jimmy Lai
NEW YORK, December 15, 2025 — The Overseas Press Club of America strongly condemns the finding by a Hong Kong court of a guilty verdict in the case of Jimmy Lai, the founder of now-defunct Apple Daily. He was found guilty on charges of colluding with “foreign forces” to undermine national security in Hong Kong. The 78-year-old Lai, who has health problems and has been held in jail in Hong Kong for more than four years, was arrested and the Apple Daily newsroom raided after Hong Kong’s China-imposed National Security Law took effect in 2020.
Lai’s case has received international attention as he is widely viewed as a target of the Chinese Communist Party, of whom he was a vocal critic, and the Hong Kong government under the new security law seeking to stifle press freedom in the former British territory. The court’s contention was that Lai had used Apple Daily to advocate with foreign governments to impose sanctions during the widespread protests in Hong Kong in 2019. He faces a sentence of life in prison.
The OPC stands against governments, officials and other forces that seek to curtail freedom of the press by harassing, intimidating, or unfairly jailing those who are doing their jobs in journalism. Jimmy Lai’s paper was aggressive in going after Chinese and Hong Kong officials that it saw as not fulfilling their duties. Before the imposition of the National Security Law, this was allowed under the one-country, two-systems doctrine that upheld press freedom. This no longer is the case, and Jimmy Lai is paying a price. The OPC condemns this guilty verdict and will continue to raise its voice in concert with other journalism organizations that are calling for the immediate release of Jimmy Lai.