HONG KONG -- When Alex Sin Ching-fung, a senior journalist at Hong Kong's i-Cable News Channel, arrived for work one day earlier this month, he had no idea that it was to be his last in the broadcaster's newsroom, where he spent the past 12 years reporting on local current affairs.
Sin was among the 40 editorial staff members who were laid off on Dec. 1 by the news organization, Hong Kong's biggest pay-TV operator, citing pandemic-related financial difficulties.