Hong Kong jail is ‘breaking’ Jimmy Lai, son says

Jimmy Lai walks through the Stanley prison in Hong Kong in 2023.
Jimmy Lai, publisher of the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper walks through the Stanley prison in Hong Kong in 2023. (Photo: AP/Louise Delmotte)

In his tireless global campaign to save 77-year-old media publisher Jimmy Lai from life imprisonment in Hong Kong, Sebastien Lai has not seen his father for more than four years.

Sebastien, who leads the #FreeJimmyLai campaign, last saw his father in August 2020 — weeks after Beijing imposed a national security law that led to a massive crackdown on pro-democracy advocates and journalists. Among them Lai, founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.

After nearly four years in Hong Kong’s maximum-security Stanley Prison and multiple delays to his trial, the aging British citizen was due to take the stand for the first time on November 20 on charges of sedition and conspiring to collude with foreign forces, which he denies.

In an interview with CPJ’s Beh Lih Yi, Sebastien spoke about prison’s toll on his father, why he should be released immediately, and how Britain and other nations are supporting that effort.  

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-CPJ demands Hong Kong end Lai’s show trial


‘I will always keep fighting,’ Zamora says as court orders him returned to jail

Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora, founder of elPeriódico newspaper, was freed, talks with reporters on October 18, 2024, in Guatemala City before leaving jail for house arrest. A court later ruled that he return to prison. (Photo: AP/Moises Castillo)
Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora, talks with reporters on October 18, 2024, before leaving jail for house arrest. (Photo: AP/Moises Castillo)

Less than a month after being moved to house arrest, a Guatemalan appeals court ordered journalist José Rubén Zamora back to jail on November 15, 2024. Zamora’s lawyers and the attorney general have appealed the motion, his son told CPJ.

The decision is a new blow to press freedom in Guatemala. Zamora, president of the now defunct elPeriódico newspaper, had already spent 813 days in jail.

In an interview with CPJ before the overturning of his house arrest, Zamora discussed the personal toll of these charges and his unyielding commitment to press freedom.

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Journalists Attacked

Myat Thu Tan

MURDERED

Myat Thu Tan, a contributor to the local news website Western News and correspondent for several independent Myanmar news outlets, was shot and killed on January 31, 2024, while in military custody in Mrauk-U in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State.

He was arrested on September 22, 2022, and held in pre-trial detention under a broad provision of the penal code that criminalizes incitement and the dissemination of false news for critical posts he made on his Facebook page. Myat Thu Tan had not been tried or convicted at the time of his death.

The journalist’s body was found buried in a bomb shelter, with the bodies of six other political detainees, and showed signs of torture.

Myanmar’s military junta has cracked down on journalists and media outlets since seizing power in a February 2021 coup.

In at least 8 out of 10 cases, the murderers of journalists go free. CPJ is waging a global campaign against impunity.

journalists killed in 2024 (motive confirmed)
imprisoned in 2023
missing globally