Lai denies supporting Hong Kong’s independence and says his now-defunct newspaper stood for ‘core values’ of the city’s people.Hong Kong’s pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai has taken the stand for the first time in a national security trial widely seen as a barometer of the Chinese territory’s diminishing freedoms.
Lai, who faces a maximum punishment of life in prison for alleged collusion with foreign forces, said on Wednesday that he had entered the news business to “participate in delivering freedom”.
“The more you are in the know, the more you are free,” Lai told West Kowloon Magistrates Court.
Answering questions from his lawyer, Lai said that his now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper had stood for the “core values” of Hong Kong’s people, including the rule of law, freedom of speech, and the pursuit of democracy.
Asked whether Apple Daily opposed violence during Hong Kong’s mass antigovernment protests in 2019, Lai said he always stood against violence in “any form”.
The 76-year-old media mogul also denied supporting independence for Hong Kong or Taiwan, advocacy of which is fiercely opposed by Beijing.
Lai’s testimony comes as the narrowing space for dissent in the former British colony is already in the spotlight after a court on Tuesday handed down jail terms to 45 democracy activists in the city’s largest na …
