Hong Kong court orders defunct Apple Daily to pay HK$1.5 million over defamatory articles
A Hong Kong court has ordered the defunct Apple Daily newspaper to pay HK$1.5 million in damages to a listed company and two senior executives over 10 defamatory articles that accused them of spying on the city’s pro-democracy activists at Beijing’s behest. In a written judgment delivered on Tuesday, the High Court ruled against former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s flagship publication after…
A Hong Kong court has ruled that the defunct Apple Daily newspaper must pay HK$1.5 million in damages to a listed company and two executives over 10 defamatory articles accusing them of spying for Beijing. The High Court, in a judgment delivered on Tuesday, dismissed Apple Daily's claim of being unable to respond to the allegations due to having been liquidated in 2021.
Judge Tony Poon Siu-tung found that the newspaper failed to prove the allegations or provide the defendants a chance to refute the claims made between November 23 and December 7, 2019. The articles, which followed allegations by self-proclaimed former spy William Wang Liqiang, portrayed the defendants as Communist Party agents and associates of the People’s Liberation Army.
Apple Daily accused the defendants of engaging in deceptive and illegal practices, and the judge agreed, ruling that the articles were indeed defamatory.
Written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post - Hong Kong's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
