BIG IDEA | ‘Freedom of the press is a good thing. The West's freedom of speech must be consistent with national interests and public security.’

Hong Kong's Apple Daily stopped publication after printing its final edition on Thursday.’

• ‘British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, the European Union spokesperson, and some US lawmakers on Wednesday accused China of cracking down on freedom of the press regarding Apple Daily's closure.’
• ‘They also launched attacks on China's national security law for Hong Kong.’ [The attacks clearly weren’t forceful enough.]

‘Apple Daily started two years before Hong Kong's return to China in 1997.’

• ‘Gradually, the newspaper became the base camp of public opinion that mobilized resistance in Hong Kong to function by the spirit of the Basic Law, and promoted Hong Kong to act in collusion with the China policies of countries like the US and the UK.’ [Oh, come on.]
• ‘The outlet has greatly exceeded the information function of the media and turned into a political revolt-seeker.’ [Revolt?]
• ‘It has been stirring up trouble and running in the frontline in Hong Kong's growing political turmoil.’ [Now, there’s the problem; Apple Daily is acting like a newspaper with an agenda; sorry, freedom of speech covers this too.]

‘No Western country would allow the existence of such a hub that manipulates public opinion to counter constitutional system of the country.’ [Wrong: That’s the whole point of freedom of the press.]

• ‘Any media outlet that has gained inciting power to oppose the mainstream will not be spared.’ [You mean like Fox when a Dem is president and MSNBC when a Republican is president?]
• ‘For example, after former US President Donald Trump's Twitter account was permanently shut down.’ [Nice try: Twitter is a private company; were it a government entity, it likely could not have shut Mr. Trump’s account.]

‘The role Apple Daily plays contradicts the freedom of the press the West advocates.’ [No, I’d say Apply Daily’s role was just about right in a free society.]

• ‘It has not been "a media outlet with a political stance," but a newspaper which engages in extreme confrontational politics through media.’ [Same point: That’s just what freedom of the press allows.]

‘On January 6, a group of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol.’ [My single day worst day as a U.S. citizen in my whole life – that includes the Kennedy assassination and 9/11 – because on January 6 my fellow citizens – my own fellow citizens - desecrated a symbol of our nation to try to stop the Senate from carrying it orderly electoral duties, as it done every four years since the first election of President Washington; that is not how democracy works.]

• ‘The blow dealt to US constitutionalism by such a confrontational and violent approach shocked the West.’ [Agreed.]
• ‘Imagine, if a US media outlet applauded and hailed the violence, calling for foreign governments to sanction the US for its suppression of the riots, and played a leading role in stirring public opinion every time, what consequences will it have?’ [None: That’s freedom of the press in a nutshell.]

‘Freedom of the press is a good thing. The West's freedom of speech must be consistent with national interests and public security.’ [If that’s the case, it’s not freedom of the press.]

• ‘However, the Western countries demand for Apple Daily to have the freedom to jeopardize Hong Kong's security and the national interests of China.’ [And just how was Apple Daily doing that again?]
• ‘They implant two opposite value orientations into two kinds of freedom of the press.

‘When they are shouting for Apple Daily's "press freedom," they are tarnishing the world's media people's belief in this concept.’ [Naw, I’d say the shouters have it about right.]