(Hong Kong) Hong Kong authorities on Wednesday arrested six current and former members of the independent local media outlet Stand News on charges of “seditious publication” under a colonial-era law.
The crackdown comes as the international community worries about press freedom in Hong Kong since Beijing’s takeover after the 2019 pro-democracy protests.
“The national security department of the police arrested six officials or former officials of an online media this morning for conspiring to publish a seditious publication (sic),” authorities said in a statement.
More than 200 police officers were mobilized to search the headquarters of Stand News in Kwun Tong district and the homes of those arrested, they added, adding that the police had been authorized by a court to seize journalistic material.
An AFP journalist saw the publication’s editor-in-chief, Patrick Lam, being taken in handcuffs into the media’s offices.
Shortly before dawn, Stand News reported live on Facebook that police were at the doorstep of Deputy Editor Ronson Chan.
In the brief video, officers inform Mr. Chan that they have a court warrant to investigate the seditious publication charges, and that Mr. Chan should stop filming.
Ronson Chan, who is also president of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, saw his home searched but was not arrested.
Cantonese pop star Denise Ho, who served on Stand News’s board but resigned in June, has also been arrested, according to her Facebook page. As are Margaret Ng, a lawyer and former member of the local Legislative Council, and Chung Pui-kuen, former editor of Stand News, according to local media.
PHOTO PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Denise Ho
The two other people arrested are two former members of the board of directors, Chow Tat-chi and Christine Fang.
“The Chinese Communist Party continues to pursue journalists and media who dare to contradict it and tell the truth. The arrests of Denise Ho and Maraget Ng are perfect examples of this, among others, ”tweeted opponent Nathan Law, in exile in the United Kingdom.
Stand News has been the target in recent months of sharp criticism from the Hong Kong authorities. The head of security in the territory, Chris Tang, accused him in early December of publishing information “biased, defamatory and demonized” on living conditions in prisons.
It is the second local newspaper company to find itself in the crosshairs of the authorities.
In June, pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily closed after its assets were frozen and its top executives were arrested under a drastic new national security law imposed by Beijing in July 2020.
As this law is not retroactive, the Hong Kong authorities sometimes also invoke an ordinance on “sedition”, imposed by the British colonial power at the beginning of the 20th century and which had remained a dead letter for decades, to suppress dissent.