Cheung Kim-hung, former CEO of the now-shuttered Apple Daily’s parent company, Next Digital Limited, was sentenced to six years and nine months for conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and was expected to remain behind bars until 2028. He was granted early release in late October 2026, a person familiar with his case told CPJ and news reports said.
Soon after his release, Cheung took part in a one-day visit, organized by Hong Kong’s Correctional Services Department for “rehabilitated” offenders, to a technology company and sites related to revolutionary history in mainland China, according to state-owned broadcaster Phoenix TV.
Cheung was sentenced on February 9, 2026, after pleading guilty in November 2022 in return for clemency on another charge. Between February and March 2024, Cheung testified against his former boss Jimmy Lai at the latter’s national security trial.
Cheung was one of six Apple Daily editors and executives sentenced alongside Lai, the newspaper’s founder and publisher who was jailed for 20 years, in Hong Kong’s largest ever media trial.
Apple Daily was published from 1995 until it was forced to close in 2021. When police arrested Cheung, Lai, and the other executives they cited dozens of articles published by Apple Daily, mostly commentary and opinion pieces calling for foreign sanctions, as evidence.
Cheung was arrested on June 16, 2021. The arrests of Cheung, Lai, and the other executives came amid authorities’ crackdown on the city’s pro-democracy movement, which targeted many media figures and activists critical of the government and the Chinese Communist Party.
In response to CPJ’s late 2026 emailed request for comment, Hong Kong’s Security Bureau said the Apple Daily defendants were “using journalism as a guise to commit acts that brought harm to our country and Hong Kong.”
The Correctional Services Department told CPJ via email in late 2026 that it did not comment on individual cases but described Cheung’s visit to mainland China as part of Project ReAch, which “aims to enhance rehabilitated persons’ awareness of national security, cultivate law-abiding awareness and a sense of responsibility, and assist them in becoming law-abiding, responsible and contributing members of society, so that joint efforts can be made to safeguard national security and social stability.”