Chung Pui-Kuen and Patrick Lam, former editors of the now-closed independent news site Stand News, were convicted last week of sedition. The ruling was described by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on Monday as a “grave attack on press freedom.”
“Journalists should be free to report on events in the public interest without fear of legal repercussions,” the media watchdog said and urged Hong Kong authorities to ensure that reporters can conduct their duties without fear of retaliation from state prosecutors.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) accused Hong Kong of “criminalizing normal journalistic work with the openly political conviction.”
The trial focused on 17 articles, including interviews, profiles, and opinion pieces by government opponents, published by Stand News in 2020 and 2021. Judge Kwok Wai-kin ruled that 11 of them were seditious, with the prosecution arguing that the pieces incited hatred toward the Hong Kong and Chinese governments as well as the National Security Law (NSL).
The law was imposed in 2020 following large pro-democracy protests that broke out the previous year after an extradition bill was proposed that would allow Hong Kong suspects to be sent to China for trial. It makes a wide range of dissenting acts illegal.
Stand News, founded in 2014, extensively covered the pro-democracy protests and the subsequent crackdown by authorities. It became well-known for live-streamed reports of clashes between security forces and protesters.
As authorities cracked down on the demonstrations, they also targeted media organizations perceived to be supportive of them, including both Stand News and Apple Daily.
“The openly political nature of the verdict severely undermines claims that the Hong Kong judiciary is even pretending to uphold the law without fear or favor. The reality is that the defendants have been convicted for doing no more than carrying out normal journalistic work which had been legal in Hong Kong,” said a joint statement issued by the CPJ, IFJ, Hong Kong Media Overseas, The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong and Index on Censorship.
U.S. and U.K. government officials have also criticized the verdict. The Guardian reported that Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, said that the court ruling “is a direct attack on media freedom and undermines Hong Kong’s once-proud international reputation for openness.”
Formerly, Hong Kong enjoyed liberties not available in mainland China, such as a free press and the ability to demonstrate, due to the one-country, two-systems framework under which it operates.