HONG KONG -- Hong Kong independent news outlet Stand News said on Wednesday that it would halt operations, hours after national security police arrested seven editors and others with ties to the media company over an alleged conspiracy to publish seditious materials and deployed more than 200 officers to search its offices.
Police said they had arrested three men and four women, aged 34 to 73, and had frozen assets worth 61 million Hong Kong dollars ($7.82 million) from Stand News, among the most critical news outlets remaining in Hong Kong since the demise of newspaper Apple Daily earlier this year. Officers carried away around 30 boxes of news materials, computers and mobile phones from Stand News' offices.
