Hong Kong courts have found two former editors of the news website guilty of “sedition” Stand Newsnow closed, issuing this type of sentence for the first time on Thursday in the context of the repression of the pro-democracy movement in 2019.
“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 NewsChung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, of “conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious content.”
The company that publishes 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 for defaming and denigrating the central authorities (Beijing, Editor’s note) and the government of the Special Administrative Region” of Hong Kong, he added.
Stand Newsa 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.
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 Newsincluding 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 Newscalled 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.”
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.
Mr. Chung “simply did what any journalist would do. In the past, it would not have resulted in criminalization and imprisonment,” he laments.
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 on Thursday.
It comes as the former British colony has gone from being a 18th-century colony in 20 yearse at 135e 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 guilty of “conspiracy” a person accused of planning a bomb attack against police officers on the sidelines of a rally in 2019.