Pro-democracy movement | First convictions of journalists for “sedition” in Hong Kong

(Hong Kong) A Hong Kong court on Thursday found two former editors of the now-closed Stand News news website guilty of “sedition,” handing down the first such conviction in the 2019 crackdown on the pro-democracy movement.

“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 Stand News editors, Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, of “conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious material.”

The company that publishes the site, Best Pencil Limited, was also found guilty of sedition.

“The line adopted [par Stand News] was to support and promote Hong Kong’s local autonomy,” Mr Kwok wrote in his verdict.

“It has even become a tool for defamation and denigration of the central authorities [de Pékin] 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, shut down in 2021 after police raided its offices, arrested its executives, 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.

Mr Lam and Mr 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.

The crime of “sedition”, dating from the colonial era and once fallen into disuse, is increasingly used by the Hong Kong justice system to suppress dissent.

Beh Lih Yi of the Committee to Protect Journalists said the use of this “archaic legislation” […] makes justice ridiculous.”

“Today’s decision is proof that Hong Kong is sliding deeper into authoritarianism and that failure to toe the official line can land anyone in jail,” she said.

“Widespread attack”

During the trial, which lasted nearly 60 days, 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 covering the trial, were outside the court on Thursday.

Among them, Lau Yan-hin, a former employee of Stand News, called the trial a “general attack” on the media, and told AFP that the trial had left him “confused about what can and cannot be said.”

Journalism student Chu, 19, said he was worried about the future of the industry. He fears the trial will prevent him from interviewing pro-democracy people in the future.

This case is “without a doubt a benchmark case in terms of repression of press freedom,” said a former journalist, speaking on condition of anonymity.

” [M. Chung] “He simply did what any journalist would have done. In the past, this would not have resulted in criminalization and imprisonment,” he laments.

Representatives from several consulates – including those of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the European Union and Australia – attended the hearing.

The decision comes as the former British colony has gone from being a 18th-century colony in 20 years to being a^e at 135^e place in the press freedom ranking published by the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

In 2002, the year the ranking was first published, the territory was considered a haven for freedom of expression in Asia.

In a separate case, Hong Kong courts on Thursday found a person guilty of “conspiracy” after he was accused of planning a bomb attack on police officers on the sidelines of a rally in 2019.