Photo: Peter Park Agence France-Presse Chung Pui-kuen, former editor of “Stand News,” leaves court after being convicted of sedition.
Xinqi Su – AFP “list-unstyled”>
A Hong Kong court on Thursday convicted two former editors of the now-shuttered news website Stand News of “sedition,” handing down the first such convictions in the 2019 crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
“I find all three defendants guilty,” Wan Chai District Court Judge Kwok Wai-kin said. It was the first conviction for “sedition” since the former British colony was handed back to China in 1997.
Judge Kwok Wai-kin convicted two former editors of Stand News, Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, of “conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious material.”
The company that published the site, Best Pencil Limited, was also found guilty of sedition.
“The line adopted (by Stand News) was to support and promote Hong Kong’s local autonomy,” Mr Kwok wrote in his verdict.
“It has even become a tool to defame and smear the central authorities (Beijing, editor’s note) and the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region,” he added.
Stand News, a popular news portal founded in 2014 that provided extensive and often favorable coverage of the 2019 pro-democracy movement, closed in 2021 after police raided its offices, arrested its leaders, and froze its assets.
Mr. Lam was unable to attend the hearing on Thursday due to health reasons, but his lawyers agreed to allow the court to rule in his absence.
Photo: Peter Parks Agence France-Presse Many diplomats attended the verdict.
Mrs. Lam and Chung, aged 36 and 54 respectively, were released on bail pending a full trial on September 26. They face a maximum sentence of two years in prison under a 1938 law.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000The colonial-era crime of “sedition,” which has long since fallen into disuse, is increasingly being used by Hong Kong’s courts to crack down on dissent.
For Beh Lih Yi of the Committee to Protect Journalists, the use of this “archaic legislation … makes justice seem ridiculous.”
“Today’s decision is proof that Hong Kong is sinking deeper and deeper into authoritarianism and that not toeing the official line can land anyone in jail,” she said.
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“Widespread attack”
During the nearly 60-day trial, the prosecution cited as evidence 17 articles and three videos published on Stand News, including interviews with pro-democracy activists.
More than 100 people, including activists and journalists who came to cover the trial, were present in court Thursday.
Among them, Lau Yan-hin, a former employee of Stand News, called the trial a “generalized attack” on the media and told AFP that the trial had left him “confused about what can and cannot be said.”
The case is “without a doubt a benchmark case for the crackdown on press freedom,” said a former journalist, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Mr. Chung “simply did what any journalist would do. In the past, it would not have resulted in criminalization and imprisonment,” he said.
Representatives from several consulates, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia, attended the hearing.
“This decision risks hampering the pluralistic exchange of ideas and the free flow of information, two cornerstones of Hong Kong’s economic success,” the European Union said in a statement Thursday.
It comes as the former British colony has moved from 18th to 135th place in the press freedom index published by the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in 20 years.
In 2002, the year this index was first published, the territory was considered a haven for freedom of expression in Asia.
In another case, the Hong Kong courts on Thursday found guilty of “conspiracy” a person accused of planning a bomb attack against police officers on the sidelines of a rally in 2019.