NPR and other news outlets reported that Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai and several executives at the media company he founded were arrested Monday. They were accused of colluding with foreign forces.
Lai is the chairman and majority owner of the Apple Daily newspaper and its publishing company, Next Digital. NPR described the paper as staunchly pro-democratic.
NPR also stated that Lai's prominence in Hong Kong's business community and his political activism made him an obvious target in Beijing's ongoing efforts to tighten its control over the region.
The Shop Talk panelists said authoritarian governments will do what they can to suppress information. They said this is nothing new and that China is not alone in trying to make life difficult for journalists.
Shop Talk is a weekly panel discussion about journalism issues. This week’s program featured Will Buss, who teaches in the Department of Broadcasting and Journalism at Western Illinois University and advises the student editors at the Western Courier, the students at student radio station The Dog, and the WIU chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists; Rajvee Subramanian, who teaches in the Department of Broadcasting and Journalism at Western Illinois University; and TSPR News Director Rich Egger.
