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A Hong Kong court has ordered the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily to pay HK$1.5 million in damages to a couple that sued the outlet for defamation over articles published in 2019.
Apple Daily’s final edition dated June 24, 2021. File photo: Kelly Ho/HKFP.The defamation suit was lodged by listed company China Innovation Investment Limited, its chairperson Xiang Xin, and his wife Kung Ching against Apple Daily Limited and AD Internet Limited.
The Apple Daily companies did not have any representatives attending the case and did not submit any evidence, Sing Tao reported. Apple Daily, founded by jailed media mogul Jimmy Lai, shuttered in 2021 after authorities raided its headquarters, arrested senior staff, and froze its assets.
Xiang and Kung accused the companies of defaming them by calling them spies for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in eight online articles and two print articles.
High Court Judge Poon Siu-tung said Apple Daily did not prove the allegations in the articles were true, did not attempt to verify the claims, and did not give the plaintiffs an opportunity to explain.
The High Court. File photo: Tom Grundy/HKFP.Apple Daily also never printed the plaintiffs’ statement denying the accusation, Poon said, adding that the articles caused the plaintiffs’ reputations to suffer.
The judge ordered the companies to pay HK$600,000 to China Innovation Investment Limited, HK$500,000 to Xiang and HK$400,000 to Kung, totalling a payment of HK$1.5 million.
Both Apple Daily Limited and AD Internet Limited, as well as another company linked to the newspaper, were declared by the government to be “prohibited organisations” in March.
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Published in November and December 2019, when anti-extradition law protests and unrest were rocking Hong Kong, the articles claimed that Xiang and Kung took instructions from the CCP and the PLA, and received funds every year to infiltrate protests, the couple said in the lawsuit.
Apple Daily accused them of colluding with triad groups to mobilise media outlets to promote the CCP, the couple also said.
According to the couple, Apple Daily’s reports caused them to be blocked from leaving Taiwan to return to Hong Kong, as they were being investigated by Taiwan for alleged spying. Their bank accounts were cancelled, affecting the operations of their company and leading to falling stock prices.
Apple Daily’s office in Tseung Kwan O. File photo: Kelly Ho/HKFP.In the end, they were not charged and were allowed to come back to Hong Kong, they said.
In addition to Apple Daily, the couple sued media companies The Age Company, Fairfax Media Publications and Nine Network Australia, but did not proceed with the cases.
They also sued Ryan Law, a former Apple Daily editor. But the plaintiffs settled with Law before the hearing began.
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