Jimmy Lai's guilty verdict marks the end of press freedom in Hong Kong

Author: Devin Windelspecht, MSc

December 18, 2025

HRRC condemns the politicized guilty verdict of Jimmy Lai and calls on governments around the world to demand his release, particularly given reports of ill health and mistreatment while in prison. 

Lai is on trial for breaching national security and colluding with foreign forces [Image credit: Getty Images via BBC News]

As freedom of expression has come under increasing strain in Hong Kong, the guilty verdict in a  “national security” trial of Hong Kong businessman and media tycoon Jimmy Lai on Monday, December 15 signals the final death knell for press freedom in the nominally autonomous city.

Jimmy Lai, who founded the popular Apple Daily newspaper, was found guilty of colluding with foreign forces and conspiracy to publish articles labeled as seditious by the pro-Beijing Hong Kong Government, for which he pled not guilty. Prior to the conviction, Lai spent five years in prison, after being arrested in 2020 during crackdowns on journalists and civil society. He has reportedly suffered ill health while in prison, including extreme weight loss, and has frequently been placed in solitary confinement. 

Lai, a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), had shaped Apple Daily into one of the most widely read pro-Democracy voices during a period in which freedom of the press, speech and expression in a model known as “One Country, Two Systems.” During this time, Hong Kong’s political, social, and economic systems operated largely independently of the Chinese government, which officially regained sovereignty over the territory from the United Kingdom in 1997.

But following mass pro-Democracy protests in 2019, which occurred in opposition to efforts by the CCP to impose stricter controls over the territory, freedom of expression, press freedoms, and political freedoms have collapsed. The 2020 National Security Law in particular has given the pro-Beijing Hong Kong government broad powers to arrest activists and journalists, disband civil society groups, and outlaw pro-democracy political parties critical of the CCP. 

The National Security Law has been particularly devastating to press freedoms, which were previously among the strongest in the world. Hong Kong placed 18th in the world 20 years ago, according to Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Index, but today ranks at 140 out of 180 countries and territories, only slightly above mainland China. Lai’s own Apple Daily closed in 2021, after its offices were raided, its editors detained, and its assets frozen for publishing articles deemed to breach the National Security Law. 

Today, independent Hong Kong journalists have largely fled overseas to continue their work, mostly to the U.K. and Taiwan, leaving pro-Beijing news sources to dominate the news ecosystem. 

Lai’s verdict comes at a particularly dark time for proponents of democracy in Hong Kong. On Sunday, December 14, Hong Kong’s last pro-democracy political opposition party voted to disband, after being largely excluded from participating in politics during a “Patriots Only” election in Hong Kong, which permitted only pro-Beijing candidates to run for office. 

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Glossary 

• Assets – non-physical items that can be exchanged for money, such as bonds or stocks.

• Autonomous – a special region allowed to largely determine its own internal affair while officially part of a larger country. 

• Civil society – journalists, activists, religious groups, advocacy groups and more that contribute to a society outside of the government. 

• Colluding – working together with others to achieve a desired outcome, connotated as with ill intent. 

• Conspiracy – a secret plan to commit an unlawful act. 

• Conviction – being found guilty of a crime. 

• Death knell – imminent destruction.

• Freedom of expression - the right of a person to voice their views or opinions openly.

• News ecosystem – the environment in which people receive their news, ranging from newspapers to digital outlets to television news. 

• Nominally – in name only.

• Proponents - advocates for. 

• Seditious – seeking to undermine the power, control, or legitimacy of a government.

• Sovereignty – legal authority over. 

• Solitary confinement - placing a person in a prison cell without access to other human beings or time outside of their cell for long periods of time. Often regarded as a form of psychological torture. 

• Tycoon - a successful and wealthy business leader who has large influence in their given industry.

• Verdict - a decision on if someone has committed a crime.