{"id":76328,"date":"2026-02-10T23:14:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T14:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/feb\/10\/jimmy-lai-jail-sentence-hong-kong-press"},"modified":"2026-02-10T23:14:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T14:14:48","slug":"hong-kongs-once-vibrant-press-stays-silent-or-celebrates-jimmy-lais-20-year-jail-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=76328","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong\u2019s once-vibrant press stays silent or celebrates Jimmy Lai\u2019s 20-year jail sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lack of response shows security law and harassment by authorities have muzzled \u2018critical voices\u2019, say experts<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/dec\/15\/jimmy-lai-rise-fall-hong-kong-itself\">The rise and fall of Jimmy Lai, whose trajectory mirrored that of Hong Kong itself<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Hong Kong\u2019s once-vibrant media outlets have responded with silence or celebration to the 20-year jail sentence handed down to Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy media tycoon and critic of the Chinese Communist party.<\/p>\n<p>Lai, 78, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/feb\/09\/jimmy-lai-sentencing-china-hong-kong-pro-democracy-businessman\">sentenced on Monday to 20 years in prison<\/a> after being convicted of sedition and colluding with foreign forces under Hong Kong\u2019s national security law. The charges were widely seen as being politically motivated and designed to silence one of Hong Kong\u2019s most influential pro-democracy campaigners.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/feb\/10\/jimmy-lai-jail-sentence-hong-kong-press\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lack of response shows security law and harassment by authorities have muzzled \u2018critical voices\u2019, say expertsThe rise and fall of Jimmy Lai, whose trajectory mirrored that of Hong Kong itselfHong Kong\u2019s once-vibrant media outlets have responded with si&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3586,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,50,48,3034,238,671,672,54,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-china","category-hong-kong","category-jimmy-lai","category-media","category-newspapers","category-newspapers-magazines","category-press-freedom","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3586"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76329,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76328\/revisions\/76329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}