I just wondered if someone else could add to it.
My dad always had a saying that fear is the cheapest weapon that an autocratic regime has over its people. That is very true for the current media landscape in Hong Kong. All the local media have essentially been cowed, so the Cantonese language media have essentially been co-opted by the government. They did that by making a huge show of the prosecution and persecution of Apple Daily and its journalists.
For example, they sent 500 policemen to raid Apple Daily. Imagine 500 policemen running into the newsroom, stopping people from working, taking laptops and hard drives. That is a very strong sign of the Idi Amin quote, “I can guarantee freedom of speech, but I can't guarantee freedom after speech.”
I also think that's a testament to what Apple Daily was doing before and its bravery in standing up for its belief, even to the point when it got very hard to do so.
That's how Apple Daily distinguished itself when it was first founded. It was a newspaper that spoke truth to power and wasn't afraid to criticize politicians and elites. By doing so, obviously, it was always the thorn in the side of the CCP and the Hong Kong government. With the passing of the national security law, it finally gave them this weapon to crack down on Apple Daily and other pro-democracy activists and protesters.