Next Digital founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying put forward the idea of setting up the English language edition of the now-closed Apple Daily tabloid during one of the “lunch box meetings,” in a bid to garner international support for the newspaper, former associate publisher Chan Pui-man said Tuesday.
Chan, the second prosecution accomplice witness for Lai’s trial, testified at West Kowloon Court as the trial entered its 29th day.
The court heard this morning that Lai established a WhatsApp chat group “English News” among Apple Daily’s management team on May 10, 2020, in response to columnist Fung Hei-kin’s suggestion to operate an English language edition of the newspaper.
Fung suggested in a column published on the same day that the tabloid should run an English edition to break the monopoly held by the South China Morning Post.
Chan said prior to the article’s publishment, Lai had already presented the idea of setting up an English edition of Apple Daily during one of the “lunch box meetings” among the management team.
She said the English edition would attract global attention to Hong Kong affairs, which Lai saw as protection for the newspaper.
She recalled that Lai once said in the chat group that global readers of the English Apple Daily would support the newspaper while under suppression.
Chan also told the court that Lai believed it was unnecessary to include English news in the print version of the tabloid, as the print version would only be distributed locally.
However, she said Lai would instruct then-publisher Cheung Kim-hung on which content that was included in the print edition to be be published in the English edition.
Hong Kong United Times丨香港聯合時報丨HKUT 