Two journalists from the closed Hong Kong media outlet Stand News have been found guilty of conspiring to publish seditious materials – the first such convictions since Hong Kong’s return to Chinese control – after a trial that was closely observed as a bellwether for the city’s diminishing press freedom.
The former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam were arrested on 29 December 2021 after police raided the outlet’s newsroom.
Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, said the verdicts marked “a dark day for press freedom” in Hong Kong.
The court found 11 articles published by Stand News to be seditious, from the 17 that prosecutors had said sought to promote “illegal ideologies” and to incite hatred against the governments in Hong Kong and China and the 2020 national security law.
The parent company of Stand News, Best Pencil Ltd, was also found guilty. “The line [Stand News] took was to support and promote Hong Kong local autonomy,” the judgment said. “It even became a tool to smear and vilify the Central Authorities [Beijing] and the [Hong Kong] SAR government.”
The district court judge Kwok Wai-kin said that in making a ruling on seditious intent, the court had considered “the potential danger to national security” and the actual situation at the time.
The outlet, launched in 2014, had been a significant source of news about the 2019 pro-democracy protests and the harsh crackdown by authorities. It became known for its livestreamed reports from the frontline of protests as police clashed with demonstrators, and from the Yuen Long MTR station where the reporter Gwyneth Ho was injured while filming mob attacks on protesters, commuters and journalists.
Patten said: “The baseless allegations and verdict of this trial mark a further sinister turn for media freedom in Hong Kong, as it is clear that political commentary and opinion pieces may violate national security.”
Stand News faced criticism from authorities but was seen by the population as one of the most credible Hong Kong outlets in 2019, according to surveys.
As authorities clamped down on the pro-democracy movement, they also targeted outlets seen as supporting it, including Stand News and Apple Daily. In 2020 the central government in China imposed the sweeping national security law (NSL), outlawing a swathe of vaguely defined acts of dissent.
In June 2021 police raided the Apple Daily offices and arrested several editors and executives and the paper’s founder, Jimmy Lai. Lai remains in jail on protest-related convictions and is on trial for NSL charges.
Six months later, authorities came for Stand News, raiding the newsroom and the home of its news editor, Ronson Chan, who led the Hong Kong journalists association. After the raid and arrests, the outlet was forced to shut down and remove all of its online content.
The raid on Stand News prompted the independent outlet Citizen News to announce within days that it would cease operations, citing the increasingly risky media environment.
Alongside Chung and Lam, police also arrested four board members and Chung’s wife, Chan Pui-Man, who was an editor at Apple Daily. Chung, Lam and Best Pencil Ltd were charged with conspiracy to publish seditious publications, specifically in relation to 17 articles and opinion pieces that ran between July 2020 and December 2021, including interviews with jailed or exiled members of the pro-democracy movement. Chan was separately charged in relation to Apple Daily.
The sedition law dates back to the British colonial era and had been little used until authorities began charging pro-democracy figures with its crimes after the 2019 protests. It was repealed in March after Hong Kong introduced its own domestic national security law.
In October 2022, Chung and Lam pleaded not guilty, Chung choosing to testify in court. He spent 36 of the trial’s 57 days in the witness box and defended Stand News and its commitment to press freedom.
“The media should not self-censor but report,” Chung said. “Freedom of speech should not be restricted on the grounds of eradicating dangerous ideas, but rather it should be used to eradicate dangerous ideas.”
The defence said Chung and Lam were legitimate journalists who covered the same stories as other Hong Kong outlets, and accused prosecutors of cherrypicking articles and introducing new evidence during the trial.
Closing arguments were delivered more than a year ago, and the verdict against Chung and Lam had been due in October but faced repeated delays, including courts wishing to wait for the outcome of a separate sedition case.
The pair now face up to two years in prison and a fine of 5,000 Hong Kong dollars (about £485/US$640) for a first offence. They have the right to appeal against the ruling. Both men spent more than 300 days in pre-trial custody before being granted bail after the trial began. The judge granted the them bail until their sentencing, scheduled for 26 September.
Beh Lih Yi, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said the use of the sedition law to target journalists “makes a mockery of justice”.
“Today’s oppressive ruling shows Hong Kong is descending further into authoritarianism, and that not toeing the official line can land anyone in jail,” Beh said.
In a separate case on Thursday, a Hong Kong jury convicted one person and acquitted six others over an alleged plan to detonate explosives and use firearms against police during a 2019 protest, in a landmark case under the UN anti-terrorism ordinance.
Lai Chun-pong, 30, was the only one found guilty. The prosecution alleged that the accused were members of a group known as the Dragon Slayers. The trial marked the first time the UN anti-terrorism measure was drawn upon in Hong Kong.
