Jimmy Lai

More than 100 media leaders from around the world have joined Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in signing an unprecedented joint statement expressing support for detained Apple Daily founder and publisher Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong, and calling for his immediate release. Among the signatories are publishers, editors-in-chief, and senior editors from 42 countries, including two Nobel Peace Prize laureates. A laureate of RSF’s Press Freedom Prize, 75-year-old Jimmy Lai has worked over the past 25 years to uphold the values of freedom of speech and press through his independent media outlet Apple Daily. Detained since December 2020 in a maximum security jail and repeatedly refused bail, Lai is already serving concurrent sentences on charges of attending “unauthorised” pro-democracy protests and allegations of fraud. Most alarmingly, he now faces a possible life sentence under the draconian national security law, with his trial scheduled to start on 25 September.