“Regrettably, what was ahead of us is not just pouring rains or blowing winds, but hurricanes and tsunamis,” the outlet said in a statement.
As the media landscape in Hong Kong rapidly changes, a third prominent news outlet will be shutting down. Citizen News announced on Sunday that it will cease operations on January 4. The website, which was founded in 2017 and focused on political news and analysis, clarified that it was not ordered to shut down by the Chinese government’s crackdown on dissent. Rather, it said the state of journalism in Hong Kong was not sustainable. “We all love this place, deeply. Regrettably, what was ahead of us is not just pouring rains or blowing winds, but hurricanes and tsunamis,” the outlet said in a statement. Citizen is the third prominent news entity to shutter in Hong Kong since Chinese authorities began cracking down on pro-democracy dissent. Apple Daily and Stand News were the other notable outlets to close, with many of their former reporters finding jobs at Citizen afterward. The National Security Law imposed by China on Hong Kong made independent journalism increasingly more dangerous and restrictive.
