Former Stand News editors found guilty of sedition by a Hong Kong court

A court in Hong Kong found two editors of the now-closed Stand News media outlet guilty on Thursday of plotting to publish seditious material. The case has garnered attention from across the world amidst heightened security measures in the city under Chinese rule.

When Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, the two editors, are sentenced on September 26, they might serve terms of up to two years in prison. Since Hong Kong was turned over from Britain to China in 1997, this conviction is the first instance of sedition against a journalist or editor.

Opponents, including the US government, claim that their case is indicative of declining media freedoms in the China-ruled city during a year-long national security crackdown.

After a police raid in December 2021, Stand News—which had been providing critical reporting and commentary online—had its assets frozen and was forced to close. It had previously been one of Hong Kong’s top online media outlets.

In relation to 17 news stories and commentary between July 2020 and December 2021, Chung, 54, Lam, 36, and the outlet’s parent firm Best Pencil (Hong Kong) Ltd were all charged with conspiring to publish seditious publications.

Chung and Lam entered not guilty pleas, and Chung was the only one present in court on Thursday to hear the decision. The majority of the writings that the court determined to be seditious were edited or approved by him.

“When speech is assessed as having seditious intent, the relevant actual circumstances must have been taken into consideration, being viewed as causing potential damage to national security, (and) must be stopped,” judge Kwok Wai-kin of the district court wrote.

Government prosecutor Laura Ng claimed throughout the 57-day trial that Stand News had served as a political forum to spread “illegal” views and inflamed readers’ animosity toward the governments of China and Hong Kong.

The court found commentary by exiled activists Nathan Law and Sunny Cheung, veteran journalist Allan Au, detained former Apple Daily associate publisher, and Chung’s wife Chan Pui-man among the items considered seditious.

“REPORTED THE VERDICT”

Numerous global advocacy groups for media freedom expressed disapproval towards the court’s decision.

“This ruling is creating a very risky precedent that Beijing may use going forward to silence any independent voices,” stated Reporters without Borders’ (RSF) Asia-Pacific advocacy manager Aleksandra Bielakowska.

“Dozens of media have been shut down, numerous journalists went (into) exile, and others who remained in Hong Kong face a new reality where crossing red lines could be considered as breaching the national security laws,” she stated to Reuters.

The convictions, according to a U.S. State Department spokesman, are a “direct attack on media freedom” and threaten the city’s “once-proud international reputation for openness.”

Chung, who opted to testify in court, spent 36 days defending media liberties and asserting that Stand News had just “recorded the facts and reported the truth” during the trial.

He claimed that the website only aimed to represent a variety of viewpoints, including those in favor of democracy.

As long as the articles did not promote violence, negatively impact the public, or create defamation, Chung emphasized that they adhered to the principle of publishing all of the articles they received in order to “showcase the greatest extent of freedom of speech”.

“The key to this case is press freedom and freedom of speech… the only way for journalists to defend press freedom is to report,” Lam stated in a mitigating letter.