Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai wanted to lure foreign readers with ‘negative’ mainland China news

Former media boss says English-language coverage did not need to be ‘balanced’, as he denies trying to trigger Western sanctions

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A former top aide to Jimmy Lai has said the ex-media boss wanted spark sanctions from the US. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 6:43pm, 25 Nov 2024Updated: 12:56am, 29 Nov 2024

Former Hong Kong media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying has said he wanted his now-defunct newspaper to attract overseas readers by publishing “negative” articles in English about mainland China, while dismissing accusations he also intended to trigger Western sanctions.

Lai, 77, told West Kowloon Court on Monday that he felt a newspaper’s credibility was not built upon balanced coverage, but on reporting what it perceived to be the truth.

The ex-mogul’s oral testimony in his high-profile trial entered its fourth day, with his lawyers turning their attention to the Apple Daily tabloid’s online English-language edition.

The English version launched in May 2020, a month before the Beijing-decreed national security law took effect.

Lai, who is contesting three charges related to foreign collusion and sedition, said in a text message to senior editorial staff that they did not need to provide foreigners with “a balanced view of what happens here of every different colour”.

He said the English edition should represent the views of “the yellow side” – referring to the colour adopted by the protest movement during the 2019 social unrest – without necessarily providing balance.