Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam insists legal action taken against pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily under the city's sweeping national security law are not targeting press freedom.
Lam was speaking at her weekly press conference a day after Mark Simon, an adviser to the jailed Apple Daily owner and Beijing critic Jimmy Lai, said the media outlet would be forced to shut in "a matter of days" after authorities froze the company's assets.
She said critics should not "beautify acts" of endangering national security.
The paper has come under increasing pressure since owner and Beijing critic Lai, who is now in jail, was arrested under the security law last August and has since had some of his assets frozen.
The newspaper's chief editor Ryan Law, 47, and CEO Cheung Kim-hung, 59, were denied bail on Saturday after being charged with conspiracy to commit collusion with a foreign country.
Three other executives were arrested on Thursday when 500 police officers raided the newspaper's offices, drawing condemnation from some foreign governments, global rights groups and the UN.
Those three are still under investigation but were released with bail.
Security Secretary John Lee told a news conference on Thursday the police operation against the Apple Daily was aimed at those who use reporting as a "tool" to endanger national security and did not target the media industry as a whole.
Australian Associated Press