Lai accepts DW's Freedom of Speech Award for jailed father
Watch the award ceremony on YouTube. Photos from the ceremony are available here.
Accepting the award on her father's behalf, Claire Lai reflected on the principles that led her father, Jimmy Lai, to found the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily ahead of Hong Kong's handover to China. "My father in his recent testimony from his National Security trial puts it better than I could, of the part he would play: 'I thought it was a good idea for somebody like me to participate in delivering freedom… because the more information you have, the more you are in the know, the more you are free.' So came the birth of his newspaper, Apple Daily."
Claire Lai spoke about the toll his imprisonment has taken on his health and daily life: "My father turns 79 this year and suffers from cascading health issues – some pre-existing, some newly developed but all extremely poorly managed. He has been imprisoned now for over five and a half years – for all but two of those nights; he has spent them in solitary confinement. The same man who taught me to love running sometimes doesn’t have the strength to stand."
Paying tribute to Jimmy Lai, Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists, also described the toll that more than five years in detention have taken on him. Ginsberg urged the audience to defend the principles for which Lai has paid such a high price. "Jimmy's fight is not a solo fight. His is a fight that we must all take on. … We can honor him today not only by fighting for his freedom, but by defending the freedoms for which he was jailed. The test of our principles is not our willingness to defend them in theory, but to do so in practice – to be willing to stand up and to speak out when those principles are under attack. And I ask you now to take a stand at home as you do abroad in defense of a free press."
Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, has become one of the most prominent symbols of the crackdown on press freedom and democratic advocacy in Hong Kong. Detained since December 2020, he remains in prison following his conviction under Hong Kong's national security law.
Born in mainland China in 1947, Lai fled to Hong Kong as a child and went on to build a successful business career before founding Apple Daily in 1995. Through his journalism and public advocacy, he became a leading supporter of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement.
In early 2026, Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted on charges including "conspiracy to collude with foreign forces" and conspiracy to publish "seditious material" following a two-year trial.
This marks the 12th time DW has presented the Freedom of Speech Award, which recognizes individuals who demonstrate exceptional courage in defending freedom of expression and press freedom around the world.
Heading into day two
The Global Media Forum continues on Wednesday with discussions on artificial intelligence, media innovation, platform regulation, press freedom and the future of trusted information in an increasingly complex media landscape.
