American radio station Radio Free Asia (RFA) said on Friday it had closed its Hong Kong bureau due to the entry into force of a new national security law, saying it feared for the safety of its journalists, AFP reported.

The station no longer has permanent staff in Hong Kong and has closed its office, its chairman Bei Fang said in a statement, citing “safety concerns for staff and journalists”.

It is the first foreign press to announce closures since the law, condemned by pro-democracy activists and which has raised concerns in several Western countries, took effect on Saturday.

The law, which complements a national security law passed by Beijing in 2020 after massive pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, provides life imprisonment for crimes such as treason and rebellion.

“The Hong Kong authorities’ actions, including the RFA’s labeling as a ‘foreign power,’ raise serious doubts about our ability to operate safely after the implementation of this law,” the director said.

Asked about the statement, a government spokesman told AFP he did not want to comment on “operational decisions taken by private organizations” but condemned any “panic and defamatory remarks” about the new law.

Washington-based Radio Free Asia, which is funded by the US Congress, recently came under attack from Hong Kong authorities in the former British colony handed over to China in 1997.

“Closing RFA’s office in Hong Kong after 28 years is a cruel reminder of how Beijing has shamelessly stripped Hong Kong of its autonomy,” House Foreign Affairs Committee member Gregory Meeks, a Democrat, said Friday.

Last month, a senior Hong Kong official accused the RFA of “polluting” the National Security Act, denouncing lies spread by “foreign powers”.

The United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, the business community and human rights activists have expressed concern over the law’s entry into force, fearing that it will further restrict freedoms in Hong Kong.