HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong court convicted two former editors of a closed news organization on Thursday in a sedition case. It is widely seen as a barometer of the future of media freedoms. In a city once considered a bastion of free press in Asia.
Former Stand News Editor-in-Chief Chong Pui Kuen Former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam was arrested in December 2021. They have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious publications. The trial was the first in Hong Kong to involve the media. Since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
FILE – Former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen, right, and former acting editor Patrick Lam, left, of the now-defunct independent media outlet Stand News, leave court on the final day of the publication’s trial on sedition charges in Hong Kong, June 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte, File)
Stand News was one of the last media outlets in the city to publicly criticize the government amid a crackdown on dissent that followed mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.
It was closed a few months after pro-democracy protests. Apple Dailyfor whom Jailed founder Jimmy Lai He is fighting Collusion charges under sweeping national security law It was approved in 2020.
Chong and Lam have been charged under a colonial-era sedition law increasingly used to crack down on dissent. They face up to two years in prison and a fine of HK$5,000 (about $640) for the first offence.
Best Pencil (Hong Kong) Ltd, the holding company for the outlets, was convicted of the same charge. It had no representatives at the trial, which is not the case. Started October 2022.
In his written ruling, Judge Kwok Wai-kin said Stand News had become a tool to discredit the Beijing and Hong Kong governments during the 2019 protests.
He said the condemnation was proportionate “when the speech, in the relevant context, is deemed to have caused potential harm to national security and is intended to seriously undermine the authority of the Chinese central government or the Hong Kong government, and must be stopped.”
The case centred on 17 articles. Prosecutors said some promoted “illegal ideologies” or denigrated the security law and law enforcement officers. Judge Kwok ruled that 11 of them had seditious intent, including comments by activist Nathan Law and respected journalists Allan Au and Chan Pui-man. Chan is also Chung’s wife.
The judge found that the other six did not have the intent to incite, including in interviews with former pro-democracy lawmakers Law and Ted Hui, who are among the overseas-based activists targeted by authorities. Hong Kong Police Rewards.
Chung appeared calm after the verdict, while Lam was not in court for health reasons. They were released on bail pending the verdict on September 26.
Defense lawyer Audrey Eu read Lam’s mitigation statement, which said Stand News reporters sought to run a news organization with completely independent editorial standards. “The only way for journalists to defend press freedom is to report,” Eu quoted Lam as saying.
Yu did not read Chung’s sentence reduction letter in court. But local media reported his letter, in which he wrote that many Hong Kongers who were not journalists had held on to their beliefs, and that some had lost their freedom because they cared about the freedom of everyone in society.
“It is an inescapable responsibility of journalists to accurately record and convey their stories and ideas,” he wrote in that letter.
After the verdict, former Stand News journalist Ronson Chan said no one told journalists they could be arrested if they conducted any interviews or wrote anything.
The issuance of the ruling was delayed several times for various reasons, including waiting for the outcome of the appeal. Another historical sedition caseDozens of residents and journalists lined up to get a seat at the session, which started an hour late.
Kevin Ng, a resident who was among the first in line, said he was a reader of the Stand News and had been following the trial. Ng, 28, said he read less news after the newspaper was shut down, feeling the city had lost some critical voices.
“They reported the truth and defended press freedom,” Ng, who works in risk management, said of the editors.
FILE – A worker carrying containers walks past police officers during a raid on the office of Stand News newspaper in Hong Kong, Dec. 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)
Stand News closed its doors in December 2021, after police raided its offices and arrested a number of people. More than 200 armed officers took part in the operation, with orders to confiscate relevant journalistic material.
Days after Stand News shut down, independent news site Citizen News also announced it would cease operations, citing the deteriorating media environment and potential risks to its staff.
Hong Kong ranked 135th out of 180 territories in Reporters Without Borders’ latest World Press Freedom Index, down from 80th in 2021. Self-censorship has also become more prominent during the political crackdown on dissent. In March, the city’s government passed another law A new security law has raised concerns that it could further restrict press freedom..
Francis Lee, a professor of journalism and communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the ruling on articles deemed seditious seemed to draw a line. Whenever an article takes a one-sided political stance, is too critical or is seen as lacking a factual basis, it could be considered defamation, Lee said.
He said some of the court’s reasoning was different from what journalists normally think of. Journalists “maybe have to be more careful from now on,” he added.
The ruling is in line with the “anti-freedom of expression trend” of rulings issued since the 2020 security law came into effect, which criminalizes journalists carrying out their professional duties, said Eric Lai, a researcher at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law.
Foreign governments Criticize the condemnations“It was a direct attack on media freedom,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller wrote on Twitter.
However, Hong Kong’s Chief Secretary for Administration, Eric Chan, insisted that when journalists report on the basis of facts, there would be no restrictions on that freedom.
Steve Lee, chief inspector of the police’s National Security Department, told reporters the ruling showed that the introduction of the provisions three years ago – which some criticised as a suppression of a free press – was necessary.
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