HONG KONG — A Hong Kong court sentenced two former editors of a shuttered news outlet on Thursday, in a sedition case widely seen as a barometer for the future of media freedom in a city once considered Asia’s bastion of a free press.
Former Stand News editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam were arrested in December 2021. They pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to publish and produce disturbing publications. The trial is the first in Hong Kong involving the media since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Stand News is one of the last media outlets in the city to openly criticize the government amid a crackdown on dissent that followed pro-democracy protests in 2019.
It was closed just months after the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, which founded Jimmy Lai, was jailed on charges of collusion under the national security law that was implemented in 2020.
Chung and Lam were charged under colonial-era sedition laws used to crack down on dissidents. He faces up to two years in prison and a fine of 5,000 Hong Kong dollars (about $640) for a first offense.
Best Pencil (Hong Kong) Ltd., the outlet’s parent company, was convicted on similar charges. There are no representatives during the trial, which begins in October 2022.
Judge Kwok Wai-kin said in a written judgment that Stand News’ was a tool to undermine the Beijing and Hong Kong governments during the 2019 protests.
He said that the conviction is considered proportionate “when the speech, in the appropriate context, is considered to cause potential damage to national security and has the intention of undermining the authority of the central government of China or the Hong Kong government, and must be stopped.”
This case is centered on 17 articles. Prosecutors said some of them promoted “illegal ideologies,” or smeared security laws and law enforcement officers. Judge Kwok ruled that 11 had seditious intent, including comments written by activist Nathan Law and respected journalists Allan Au and Chan Pui-man. Chan is also Chung’s wife.
The judge found that the other six did not commit seditious intent, including in interviews with former pro-democracy lawmakers Law and Ted Hui, who are among overseas activists targeted by Hong Kong police.
Chung appeared calm after the verdict while Lam did not appear in court due to health reasons. They were granted bail pending sentencing on September 26.
Defense lawyer Audrey Eu read a statement in mitigation from Lam, who said Stand News reporters sought to run a news outlet with independent editorial standards. “The only way for journalists to defend press freedom is to report,” said Eu Lam.
Eu did not read Chung’s mitigation letter in court. But local media quoted the letter, in which he wrote that many Hong Kongers who are not journalists hold beliefs, and some have lost their own freedom because they care about the freedom of everyone in the community.
“Recording and reporting stories and thoughts accurately is a journalist’s irresponsible responsibility,” he wrote in the letter.
After the verdict, former Stand News reporter Ronson Chan said no one had told reporters they could be arrested if they did an interview or wrote anything.
The delivery of the verdict has been delayed several times for various reasons, including pending the outcome of an appeal from another landmark sedition case. Dozens of residents and journalists lined up to secure seats for the hearing, which started an hour late.
Resident Kevin Ng, who was one of the first in line, said he was a Stand News reader and had been following the trial. Ng, 28, said he read less news after the death, feeling the city had lost a critical voice.
“They report the truth, they defend the freedom of the press,” Ng, who works in the risk management industry, said of the editor.
Stand News closed in December 2021, following a police raid on the office and arrests. Armed with warrants to seize relevant journalistic material, more than 200 officers took part in the operation.
Days after Stand News closed, independent news outlet Citizen News also announced it would cease operations, citing a deteriorating media environment and potential risks to its staff.
Hong Kong is ranked 135 out of 180 regions in Reporters Without Borders’ latest World Press Freedom Index, down from 80 in 2021. Self-censorship has also become more important in a political crackdown on dissent. In March, the city government enacted another new security law that raised concerns that it could curtail press freedom.
Francis Lee, a professor of journalism and communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the decision on disturbing articles seemed to draw a line. If the article is about a one-sided political stance, is too critical or is considered to lack factual basis, then it can be considered as smearing, said Lee.
Some of the court’s logic is different from the way journalists usually think, he said. Journalists “may have to be more careful from now on.”
Eric Lai, a researcher at Georgetown’s Asia Law Center, said the decision was in line with an “anti-free-speech trend” of decisions since the 2020 security law came into force, criminalizing journalists carrying out their professional duties.
Foreign governments criticized the belief. US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller wrote in X that this was a “direct attack on media freedom.”
However, Eric Chan, Chief Secretary of the Hong Kong Administration, stressed that as long as journalists are reporting based on facts, there are no restrictions on their freedom.
Steve Li, chief superintendent of the national security department of the police, told reporters that the order showed the enforcement that three years ago – criticized by some as the suppression of the free press – was necessary.
