CY Leung Slammed Over Targeting Advertisers

The Journalists Association has criticised former Chief Executive CY Leung for putting pressure on companies who advertise on local newspaper Apple Daily, saying his actions are against the free market principle of Hong Kong.

In the past few days, Leung had in his Facebook repeatedly accused a columnist of the newspaper, Lee Yee, of spreading hate, and, at the same time, uploaded photographs of advertisement printed on the paper.

On Thursday, Leung called Lee a man “with no morals”, adding “he is paid by Apple Daily, which is paid by the companies which puts advertisement on it and these companies are paid by their customers”, and posted several photographs of the advertisement published on the same day.

In another post, he wrote: "do we want to buy those products to pay for Lee Yee?"

The Journalists Association bashed Leung for putting pressure on the advertisers, and for hinting that the public should stop buying products from the companies.

In a statement, it noted Leung, as a former leader of the SAR and a vice-chairman of the central government’s top advisory body, the CPPCC, can exert considerable influence on society.

It said what Leung did would give the impression that he is trying to influence others’ commercial decisions, and would make a bad example to others.

It said companies should be free to choose where to place advertisements in a free economy like Hong Kong.