Pro-Beijing media exerting pressure on Hong Kong’s judiciary was part of the city’s freedom of speech, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday, addressing attacks by state-run papers about the release of Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai.

Those attacks came after the High Court released the 73-year-old on bail, pending a hearing over accusations he colluded with foreign powers and on a separate fraud charge.

Pro-Beijing newspapers, including mouthpiece the People’s Daily, criticized the High Court’s decision through its opinion pages over multiple days. The decision was later overturned by the Court of Final Appeal, which issued a temporary detention order to Lai.

Lam said on Tuesday that nobody should arbitrarily make personal attacks on judges. But if comments are made based on the understanding of the law and facts, then it is the freedom of speech advocated by the media, she said.

Lam also said she was unsure why people had argued that those pro-Beijing columns placed pressure on the judiciary, reiterating that as all judges were sworn in when they took office, their impartiality would not be affected by those comments.

Pro-democracy lawyer Albert Ho said it was different on this occasion, as the editorial articles were also published by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper representing the Chinese Communist Party.

“The People’s Daily is the top official media in the mainland, and its influence is immense. Such overwhelming attacks on the court has never been seen before,” Ho said.

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