Citizen News posted its decision on Sunday via Facebook. It stated that it would cease updating its website on January 4, and that it would shut down after that date.
“We all love this area deeply. It said that it regrettably, the future was not just raining or blowing wind, but hurricanes, and tsunamis.”
“We have not forgotten our original intention. We can’t continue to strive for our beliefs to become reality because of the dramatic changes in society over the last two years and the degrading media environment.
After pro-democracy news site Apple Daily and online publication Stand News, Citizen News is now the third news outlet to be shut down in recent months. After massive pro-democracy protests in 2019, Beijing implemented a broad national security law in China that has been used to silence any dissent.
Citizen News was set to close its doors shortly after seven people were arrested by authorities at Stand News. They had raided the newspaper and taken away former board members and editors. Stand News also announced that it would close its doors on the same day.
Two former editors of Stand News were arrested and later charged with sedition.
The new law, which requires all candidates to pass a loyalty test, made it impossible for the opposition to vote in December. Monuments to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing were also removed.
The U.S., and other Western governments have condemned the decline in press freedoms and civil liberties that Beijing promised to protect for 50 years after Hong Kong was retaken from Britain in 1997.
Last week, Carrie Lam, the leader of Hong Kong, defended the raid against Stand News. She told reporters that “inciting others… could not have been condoned under guise news reporting.”
