Chan Pui-man is the former associate publisher of Apple Daily, a subsidiary of the media company Next Digital Limited from 1995 to 2021. Chan joined Apple Daily as a security reporter in 1996, a year after it was founded. In 2015, she became the first female editor-in-chief at Apply Daily. During the 2014 Umbrella Movement, Apple Daily’s headquarters were sieged by pro-Beijing groups. She published an articled titled “I can be a news reporter for my whole life” (我可以做一輩子新聞記者) in which she said she was fearless: “This is a war to defend press freedom and Hong Kong. We will never surrender.”

On June 16, 2021, Hong Kong Police arrested Chan along with four Apple Daily executives––including Next Digital’s Chief Executive Cheung Kim-hung, Chief Operating Officer Royston Chow, Apple Daily editor-in-chief Ryan Law Wai-kwong, and Apple Action News platform director Cheung Chi Wai––on suspicion of conspiring to collude with foreign forces, a crime under Hong Kong’s national security law. 500 police officers raided Next Digital’s headquarter with a search warrant. Police searched news materials and evidence for a suspected violation of the National Security Law. Three of them, Chan, Chow, and Cheung Chi-wai were released on bail on June 18, after 40 hours of detention. Chan and the other executives bravely returned to the newsroom floor. However, on July 21, police revoked their bails and rearrested the three.

Another two executives––Apple Daily’s Executive Editor-in-Chief Lam Man-chung and Managing Editor of its English edition Fung Wai-kong––in the same case were arrested on later dates.

Prosecutors accused Lai, the six executives, and three Next Digital subsidiaries––Apple Daily Limited, Apple Daily Printing Limited, and AD Internet Limited––of endangering national security by engaging with foreign countries, institutions, organizations, or individuals overseas in calling for sanctions and hostile activities against Hong Kong or China.

On Nov. 22, 2022, the six pled guilty to the collusion charge. Prosecutors agreed not to pursue the sedition charge, however the charge remains on the court file indefinitely. Mitigation submissions and sentencing of the six will be handled after Lai’s trial.