“But it still came as a shock when it happened,” said one journalist at the publication, who asked to remain anonymous out of security fears.

Since the law took effect, Apple Daily has been crippled bit by bit. Founder Jimmy Lai — already in jail for attending a pro-democracy rally — has been arrested and charged with colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security. Five of the newspaper’s top editors and executives have been accused of the same crime, apparently for using articles to call for foreign governments to sanction Hong Kong.

Hundreds of police officers have twice raided the publication’s newsroom, most recently seizing computers and materials — an alarming development for journalists and their sources in an increasingly sensitive environment. Several Apple Daily journalists had already quit before this…