Sebastien Lai is Jimmy Lai’s son, and he leads the #FreeJimmyLai campaign. Jimmy Lai is a renowned media entrepreneur, writer and pro-democracy campaigner, who founded Next Digital and Apple Daily, the popular independent Chinese language newspaper in Hong Kong which was forcibly shut down by the Hong Kong authorities in 2021. Jimmy Lai has been imprisoned in Hong Kong since 2020, and faces the rest of his life behind bars. Sebastien is leading the campaign to secure his father’s release.

In December 2021 Sebastien accepted the award of the 2021 WAN-IFRA Golden Pen of Freedom on behalf of his father and the newsroom staff of Apple Daily Hong Kong. On receiving the award he said there will be “less and less people shining light in these dark corners” given Apple Daily’s shutdown and the ongoing crackdown on journalism in the region.

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