HK’s Apple Daily says it may shut down

Board to decide future after asset freeze left the group unable to pay staff salaries

Hong Kong’s embattled pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily reported on Monday that its board of directors has asked authorities to unfreeze some assets so it can pay salaries and avoid labour violations, and that the board will meet again on Friday to decide if the newspaper will cease operations. Police last week arrested five top editors and executives of Apple Daily under the city’s tough national security law on suspicion of foreign collusion, searched its offices and froze $2.3 million worth of assets of three companies linked to the newspaper. The arrests and freezing of assets came as Hong Kong authorities crack down on dissenting voices as Beijing tightens control over the territory in what critics say is an erosion of freedoms it promised the city for 50 years when the former British colony was handed over to China in 1997.