Against a backdrop of ongoing police clampdowns in Hong Kong, Christina Lo Man Ki, Director of Digital Strategy at Apple Daily received the WAN-IFRA World Digital Media Award for the Best Mobile Service, during the 7th Tablet & App Summit in Amsterdam.

That mobile service is the paper at a time like this, with Christina explaining that in troubled times the paper has to be ready to deal with attempts to silence it. “Our company is used to threats. Our boss, Jimmy Lai, is an outspoken supporter of democracy, and we have had knives left outside his home and our offices. They hack our computers, they hack our phones, and we get a lot of silent calls where the phone rings then they hang up on answering.”

The contingency plan is to switch directly to social media. “When the servers fail, we rely on Facebook and YouTube. All our news goes online, whether that’s by Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.”

With the print version of the paper being blockaded, and the offices themselves in a state of near siege, there has never been a more timely illustration of the importance of a mobile news channel to a publisher.

Our congratulations go to the Apple Daily NGA for its remarkable combination of technical achievement and professional determination to be heard.