Hong Kong media magnate Jimmy Lai quits after democracy protest arrest
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong publishing tycoon Jimmy Lai, an outspoken critic of Beijing, has stepped down as editor-in-chief of the Apple Daily after being arrested for refusing to leave a key pro-democracy protest site in the center of the city. The media magnate's resignation was reported on Friday via a video clip on the publication's website. Lai's company Next Media Ltd also confirmed that he had been detained. Lai's role as the main financial patron of the pro-democracy movement since Hong Kong's 1997 handover to Communist Party rulers in China has come under scrutiny. In September Lai visited the territory's anti-corruption agency on Wednesday, after a recent raid on his home. Police cleared the main protest site in near the Central business district and reopened the multi-lane highway by Thursday night, ending one of the most serious challenges to China's authority since the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations and bloody crackdown in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square. (Reporting by Donny Kwok and Lizzie Ko; Additional reporting by Clare Jim; Writing by Farah Master)
