Pro-Beijing Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam claimed that press freedom was still there in her city, after two local independent media outlets shut down in recent days, following a police clampdown against one of them in late December. “This morning I read news about, because of the closure of online medium, press freedom in Hong Kong faces extinction … I just cannot accept that sort of allegations,” Lam said during her weekly press conference on Jan. 4. “Journalists and media organizations, like all of us, have to respect and comply with the law,” Lam added, before adding that Hong Kong was not “suppressing press freedom” but acting “in accordance with the law.” On Dec. 29, over 200 national security police officers raided the office of Stand News, marking the second local media outlet to be raided by Hong Kong police in 2021. In June last year, 500 police officers raided …