Newspaper Epoch Times to stop printing, distributing Hong Kong edition after 23 years in city
Hong Kong Free Press
The Epoch Times, a newspaper linked to a Chinese spiritual group, has announced it will cease printing and distribution in Hong Kong, 23 years after it launched in the city.
The newspaper made the announcement on its website on Friday afternoon, citing difficulties in securing a lease for a printing facility. Its final print edition will be distributed in Hong Kong on September 17, but its website will keep on covering the city’s news.
“Due to the expiration of the lease for The Epoch Times printing facility in Hong Kong and various other factors in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong edition of the Epoch Times has decided to suspend printing and distribution,” the Chinese statement read, adding that the newspaper had been running in the city for 23 years.
“These were not ordinary 23 four seasons, but 8,000 days and nights to witness Hong Kong’s rise and decline,” it said in Chinese.
The newspaper, which used to be free, started charging HK$10 in 2019.
‘An anti-China slant’
According to the newspaper’s website, The Epoch Times was founded in 2001. Currently headquartered in New York, in the US, it has a presence in more than 30 countries and provides coverage in 21 languages.
The newspaper is linked to Falun Gong, a spiritual movement which rose in the early 1990s in mainland China and banned and prosecuted in mainland China since 1999.
Falun Gong, however, maintains a presence in Hong Kong and its practitioners have long handed out The Epoch Times out at street booths.
The New York Times reported in 2021 that the Epoch Times had gone from being a free newspaper with a small budget that was full of “an anti-China slant” to become one of the most powerful digital publishers in the US, where it is known for its conservatism and conspiracy theories.
Following the enactment of the Beijing-imposed national security law in Hong Kong, the newspaper and Falun Gong have reportedly faced increasing pressure.
In April 2021, the newspaper said a gang of sledgehammer-wielding men damaged its printing presses. The Epoch Times said the assault, which was captured by surveillance cameras, knocked out its presses, but vowed to print again soon.
Also in April 2021, the newspaper reported that multiple Falun Gong street booths had been harassed and attacked by unknown people.
In May 2021, Epoch Times reporter Leung Zhen was attacked by a man wielding a baseball bat from a passing vehicle, according to a witness who spoke to the newspaper. Leung, who is also head of the Hong Kong Association of Falun Dafa, accused the Chinese Communist Party of orchestrating the attack.
Hong Kong has plummeted in international press freedom indices since the onset of the security law. Watchdogs cite the arrest of journalists, raids on newsrooms and the closure of around 10 media outlets including Apple Daily, Stand News and Citizen News. Over 1,000 journalists have lost their jobs, whilst many have emigrated. Meanwhile, the city’s government-funded broadcaster RTHK has adopted new editorial guidelines, purged its archives and axed news and satirical shows.
See also: Explainer: Hong Kong’s press freedom under the national security law
In 2022, Chief Executive John Lee said press freedom was “in the pocket” of Hongkongers but “nobody is above the law.” Although he has told the press to “tell a good Hong Kong story,” government departments have been reluctant to respond to story pitches.
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