‘Apple Daily’ to close down

End of print: A woman passing a flower and card to ‘Apple Daily’ employees at Next Digital’s headquarters in Hong Kong. — Reuters

HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily will stop operating no later than Saturday, its publisher Next Digital said after national security police arrested another employee of the newspaper.

In a statement on its website yesterday, Next Digital said the decision to close the popular 26-year-old tabloid newspaper, which employs about 600 journalists, was taken “due to the current circumstances prevailing in Hong Kong”.