The Hong Kong government has formally closed an investigation into jailed media mogul Jimmy Lai’s Next Digital, the parent company of the defunct newspaper Apple Daily, as the firm undergoes liquidation. The firms were later struck off the city’s Companies Register and declared “prohibited organisations” under the Beijing-imposed national security law. The investigation began weeks after national security police raided the company’s headquarters in Tseung Kwan O. Hong Kong has plummeted in international press freedom indices since the onset of the 2020 and 2024 security laws. Although he has told the press to “tell a good Hong Kong story,” government departments have been reluctant to respond to story pitches.