Hong Kong Journalists Convicted of Sedition in Stand News Case

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Hong Kong Journalists Convicted of Sedition in Stand News Case

The two veterans of Hong Kong’s long boisterous news media scene didn’t shy away from publishing pro-democracy voices on their Stand News site, even as China cranked up its national security clampdown to silence critics in the city.

Then the police came knocking and, more than two and a half years later, a judge Thursday convicted the two journalists — the former editor in chief of Stand News, Chung Pui-kuen, and his successor, Patrick Lam — of conspiring to publish seditious materials on the now-defunct ******** news outlet. Both face potential prison sentences.

The landmark ruling highlighted how far press freedom has shrunk in the city, where local news outlets already self censor to survive and some foreign news organizations have left or moved out staff amid increasing scrutiny from the authorities.

During the trial, prosecutors characterized news articles and opinion pieces published by the two as biased against the government and a threat to national security. The articles were similar to those Stand News had been publishing for years. But after the authorities crushed protests that rocked the city in 2019, China imposed a national security law, and tolerance for dissent in the city’s freewheeling media began to evaporate.

The two editors have maintained their innocence. Mr. Chung said in his court testimony that they were operating within journalistic principles, to deliver stories with news value and of public interest.

“We didn’t have a hidden agenda, or any other goals that you couldn’t see,” he said in his testimony at the trial last year. “We saw very important events with a lot of public interest; we only wanted to document them.”

Former colleagues of Mr. Chung described him as a fearless leader and a fair-minded journalist who encouraged employees to seek out pro-Beijing politicians for interviews or opinion articles, even though those requests were regularly declined.

“He was steadfast to his ideals,” said Lam Yin-pong, a former editor at the site who now runs a one-man online news agency. “He has the most backbone. His sacrifice is very extreme.”

The trial is the latest example of the authorities’ campaign against dissent in Hong Kong that has seen scores of activists, opposition politicians and ordinary citizens who posted comments online sent to jail. The campaign has led to an exodus of local and expatriate residents and driven out some foreign companies as the city’s economy struggles to bounce back from the pandemic.

“The verdict could impose an additional chilling effect on the local media industry that has been exercising self censorship heavily since 2020,” said Eric Lai, a Hong Kong law expert at Georgetown Center for ****** Law.

In his ruling, the judge in the case, Kwok Wai-kin, wrote that it was necessary to balance freedom of speech “with the prevention of the potential damage wrought by incendiary publications.” Judge Kwok is one of the judges handpicked by Hong Kong’s chief executive to hear national security cases.

Hong Kong’s press freedom ranking fell to 135th out of 180 countries and territories, according to an index compiled by the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders. A representative of the organization was denied entry to Hong Kong on a fact-finding mission in April.

The media mogul Jimmy Lai, founder of the defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, is on trial on charges of *********** and collusion with foreign forces under the national security law.

The ******* States-funded news service Radio Free Asia said in March it had closed its office in Hong Kong after the government enacted a new national security law that targets so-called foreign interference. The Hong Kong Journalists Association was targeted for criticism after it elected a new board this year, with ******** state media accusing it of having a political agenda.

The two editors, who both spent almost a year in prison after their arrests, had their bail extended pending sentencing expected in late September. Mr. Lam did not attend Thursday’s hearing because of health issues, his lawyer said.

The imposition of Hong Kong’s new security law has led to some uncertainty over how existing political cases will be handled. The Stand News journalists were charged in 2021 under a British colonial-era sedition law, which carries a maximum sentence of up to two years in prison.

But Hong Kong’s new national security law introduced this year increased the maximum sentence for sedition to seven years — and 10, if an “external force” was involved. It replaced the sedition law.

Legal experts said that in at least one other case related to national security, the courts have applied the harsher new punishments retroactively. It isn’t clear if that will happen when the court sentences the two editors.

Stand News was founded in 2014, and its founding principles included safeguarding democracy, freedom and human rights. It came to greater prominence for its livestreaming of monthslong anti-government protests in 2019, its small but seemingly ubiquitous team nimbly covering the movement and the response by the authorities.

Mr. Chung and Mr. Lam were arrested in late December 2021. Hundreds of police officers descended on the newsroom and collected boxes of evidence. Stand News replaced its home page with a notice announcing that it would shut down.

During the trial, prosecutors cited 17 articles they said were at the center of a *********** between the two editors and the company that owned Stand News to publish seditious materials. Those included an opinion article written by Nathan Law and an interview with Ted Hui, both former lawmakers who now live in self-exile abroad and are wanted by the Hong Kong police.

The trial of the Stand News editors has been plagued by delays: Originally slated to last 20 days, it stretched to more than 50. The verdict was first scheduled to be handed down last October, but it was postponed three times.

Mr. Chung spent 36 days on the witness stand, with prosecutor Laura Ng, the prosecutor, suggesting to him that Stand News was a platform for hardened critics of Hong Kong and Beijing. Mr. Chung responded that he sought to include voices across the political spectrum because he believed that open discussion was healthy for society.

“To me, freedom of speech is close to a kind of ******,” he said.

In one exchange, Mr. Chung was asked if his belief in free speech would include giving a platform to dangerous voices, such as ****** bin Laden in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 ********** attacks on the U.S.

The toll of the trial became evident on Mr. Chung when at one point he broke down in tears as he recounted the day his wife, Chan Pui-man, was arrested over her role as an associate publisher of Apple Daily. Mr. Chung had stepped down as the top editor of Stand News in the months before the site closed to focus on handling her affairs while she was in prison.

Prosecutors accused him of continuing to give instructions to Mr. Lam afterward, citing group chat messages in which he pointed out typos or story ideas that the newspaper hadn’t yet covered. Mr. Chung said that he was merely offering suggestions, and that work habits were hard to shake.

Former co-workers of Mr. Chung recalled in interviews that he was often the first one into the office and last to leave. Sometimes he would jump in and write article drafts himself, make graphics and write captions for photographs, they said. When Stand News struggled financially, he took a reduced salary, they said.

Lam Yin-pong, the former colleague, recalled Stand News running a story that was critical of the Democratic Party.

“We didn’t try to serve anyone in particular, or to say what is right,” he said. “To call this a *********** is a joke.”

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