26th Meeting 58th Session of Human Rights Council UN Web TV
ID with Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights (cont’d) and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism (Cont’d)
International Federation of Journalists, Ms. Martha Spurrier
发言内容：
Thank you, Mr. Vice President.
The weaponization of national security and counter terror laws sees courageous truth tellers silenced by imprisonment and prosecution.
Most renowned among them is Jimmy Lai, the 77 year old journalist, democracy campaigner, media entrepreneur and founder of Apple Daily, the most popular Chinese language newspaper in Hong Kong and a voice for democracy and freedom in the region. Armed with the widely condemned national security law, the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities have a stranglehold on media freedom. Apple Daily was forcibly shut down in 2021 and since then Jimmy Lai has been arbitrarily detained in solitary confinement.
The UN working group on arbitrary detention has condemned Mr. Lai’s detention, arrest and prosecution as an abuse of his fundamental rights. Last week, Mr. Lai finished testifying in his national security law trial. From the stand he said, the more information you have, the more you are free. For his journalism and peaceful campaigning, Mr. Lai has paid the price of his freedom. He is caught in the web of overbroad offenses in the national security law that operate to suppress free speech and criminalize dissent. But these are not crimes. They are activities protected by international law.
The International Federation of Journalists calls on China and Hong Kong to release Jimmy Lai and to repeal the national security law.
We are grateful to the special rapporteur for raising concerns about Mr. Lai’s case and together with other UN experts for calling for his immediate and unconditional release.
We urge the council and states to join his call.
消息来源：26th Meeting – 58th Session of Human Rights Council, https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k19/k19dcvneae.
