Jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai wins free speech award in Germany | Jimmy Lai
Jailed media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai has been awarded Deutsche Welle’s freedom of expression award for his contributions to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
Lai will be presented with the 12th iteration of the award in absentia on June 23 at the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn, the German public broadcaster said on Thursday.
Barbara Massing, chief executive of Deutsche Welle, praised the 78-year-old founder of now-shuttered news outlet Apple Daily for “unwavering defense of press freedom in Hong Kong despite great personal risk.”
“With Apple Daily, it has become a platform for journalists to report free and the voice of the democracy movement in Hong Kong,” he said. “His dedication reminds us that freedom of the press can never be given away, it must be constantly defended. With the DW freedom of expression award, we honor his indispensable commitment to democratic values.”
Lai, a British citizen, was one of Hong Kong’s most prominent and vocal pro-democracy advocates before his imprisonment. It has provided financial support to democratic parties and politicians and participated in mass protests against Beijing rule in 2019 and 2020.
Authorities arrested Lai in 2020 and accused him of using Apple Daily and his political connections to lobby foreign governments to impose sanctions on China and Hong Kong.
A Hong Kong court sentenced him to 20 years in prison in February on charges including “conspiracy to collaborate with foreign powers” and publishing “seditious materials.” He was convicted under the city’s draconian national security law, which was implemented by the Chinese Communist Party in 2020.
The verdict was condemned by human rights groups and the British government as politically motivated, and Human Rights Watch warned that the length of his sentence amounted to “in effect a death sentence”.
Lai’s conviction was the culmination of a years-long saga that critics say represents Hong Kong’s transformation from a largely free city after its return to China in 1997 after more than 150 years of British rule to one where dissent is violently suppressed.
Beijing says enforcement of the law is necessary to restore stability in the city.
Lai, who was born in southern China in 1947 and fled to Hong Kong in 1960, said he owed “everything to the people of Hong Kong” and that the prison sentence would be “atonement” for the “wonderful life” the territory had offered him.
Additional reporting from Yu-chen Li.
