hong kong hong kongs new police chief called for a fake news law on saturday and blamed the media for plunging trust in his officers in the politically polarised finance hubhis call comes as authorities carry out a sweeping crackdown on dissent and just days after outspoken newspaper apple daily was forced to fold following the freezing of its accounts under a tough new national security lawsurveys show the police have been the least popular disciplinary service in the city since hong kong was rocked by huge and sometimes violent prodemocracy protests in 2019 during which allegations of police brutality emergedpolice chief raymond siu said much of the blame lay with the mediai understand that there are residents who are still hostile against us in this regard i told my colleagues that many of these torn relationships and hostility against the police are due to face news siu said at his first media briefing since taking officethere is no legal definition of fake news at the moment but if there is any legislation that could help us bring these people to justice as law enforcers we absolutely welcome it he addedhong kongs demonstrations subsided last year due to mass arrests the coronavirus pandemic and beijings imposition of the security law which critics argue has been used to curb dissentthree former police officers were on friday promoted to key positions in government with former security minister john lee becoming the citys new number two official and an expolice chief stepping into lees security bureau rolelast thursday 500 police officers raided the newsroom of prodemocracy newspaper apple daily as authorities froze the companys assets under the security lawfive executives of the paper were arrested and two were charged with conspiracy to collude with foreign forcesapple dailys lead editorial writer was also arrested on wednesday and the paper was forced to fold saying it feared for the safety of staffsiu however said police were targeting national security offenders and not the news media