Ryan Law started his journalism career more than 20 years ago as a political reporter. He is the former editor in Chief of Apple Daily, a subsidiary of the media company Next Digital Limited from 1995 to 2021.

On June 16, 2021, Hong Kong Police arrested Law along with four Apple Daily executives––including Next Digital’s Chief Executive Cheung Kim-hung, Chief Operating Officer Royston Chow, Apple Daily associate publisher Chan Pui-man, and Apple Action News platform director Cheung Chi Wai––on suspicion of conspiring to collude with foreign forces, a crime under Hong Kong’s national security law. 500 police officers raided Next Digital’s headquarter with a search warrant. Police searched news materials and evidence for a suspected violation of the National Security Law. When Cheung was brought to leave the building, he told the staff that “We shall hold on,” which was printed as the headline of the newspaper’s cover story the next day. [1]

Two other executives––Apple Daily’s Executive Editor-in-Chief Lam Man-chung and ____ of the same case were arrested on later dates. [2]

Prosecutors accused Lai, the six executives, and three Next Digital subsidiaries––Apple Daily Limited, Apple Daily Printing Limited, and AD Internet Limited––of endangering national security by engaging with foreign countries, institutions, organizations, or individuals overseas in hostile activities against Hong Kong or China.

In a staff conference a month before the arrest, he told his fellows that “If I were arrested, what should everyone do? Do news!” [3]

On Nov. 22, 2022, the six pled guilty to the collusion charge. Prosecutors agreed not to pursue the sedition charge, however the charge remains on the court file indefinitely. Mitigation submissions and sentencing of the six will be handled after Lai’s trial.