Hong Kong - WE ARE ALL APPLES

WE ARE ALL APPLES

"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

This is a famous quote by Thomas Jefferson, written in a letter to fellow Virginia statesman Edward Carrington in 1787. The Founding Father, who went on to become the third president of the U.S., was minister to France at that time. It was two years before the French Revolution.

Jefferson respected the mission of newspapers, because he believed that "The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right."

As a journalist working for a newspaper based in Japan, I share Jefferson's values. I primarily serve the people, and I believe that journalism is a basis of democracy.

"Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe," Jefferson also said.

I am writing an obituary to a free and safe Hong Kong. The national security law enacted in 2020 began killing freedom of the press there a year ago, and now it is dead.

"We are afraid, but we don't want to be intimidated by fear or blinded by pessimism," the editorial in the inaugural issue of Apple Daily proudly stated in 1995.

Our colleague in Hong Kong, Michelle Chan, bravely wrote last night, "They thought they killed an apple, but they didn't know its seeds are already rooted in our hearts and we will grow apple trees one day."

Yes. We are all apples. We will continue to print the news that's fit to print, without fear and without favor, because we believe democracy dies in darkness.