Another Hong Kong media outlet is closing as a result of what is seen as a “worsening environment for media” in the city.

Citizen News chief writer Chris Yeung – who is former president of the Hong Kong Journalists Association – and chief editor Daisy Li took part in a news conference yesterday to announce the outlet will cease operations in order to ensure the safety of staff.

“Regrettably, the rapid changes in society and worsening environment for media make us unable to achieve our goal fearlessly,” they said in a statement. “Amid this crisis, we have to first make sure everyone on the boat is safe.”

Its closure comes just over five years after Citizen News was established by ten veteran journalists, including former Ming Pao editor-in-chief Kevin Lau and Li, who is a former HKJA chairperson.

The move comes after Stand News closed following an early morning police raid last week.

Yeung said reporting fearlessly had meant they weren’t “afraid of offending the political elite.

“We criticise the authorities when their policies aren’t right, we don’t shy from covering corporations due to business pressure, but it doesn’t mean we should have to sacrifice our freedom as a price.”

The Guardian reported that the police raid on Stand News had seen seven current and former employees “including popstar activist Denise Ho” arrested. Two former senior editors were charged with conspiring to publish seditious materials and denied bail.

Jimmy Lai’s Apple Daily Hong Kong has also closed and operations at public broadcaster RTHK “overhauled”.

In an interview with China News Agency on Monday, security secretary Chris Tang lauded his bureau’s arrests of “anti-China agitators”, singling out the “cessation” of Apple Daily as the most impressive, the Guardian said, quoting the Standard.