Two Hong Kong journalists found guilty of sedition after a 2-year trial
The court finds 11 interviews and commentaries on now-defunct Stand News seditious
Originally published on Global Voices
This report summarizes two reports (1 & 2) written by Han Tse and published in Hong Kong Free Press on August 29, 2024. It is published as part of a content partnership agreement.
Two former chief editors of the defunct outlet Stand News were found guilty of sedition on August 29 2024, marking the first such conviction of journalists in Hong Kong since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, both top editors at the outlet before it was forced to close in December 2021, were charged alongside Stand News’s parent company, Best Pencil Limited, with taking part in a “conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious publications.” They pleaded not guilty to the charge in October 2022 and face up to two years in jail if convicted.
District court judge Kwok Wai-kin, who is also a designated judge for national security-related cases, wrote in his judgement:
The court rules that the political atmosphere was extremely heated at the time of the case. Many residents were dissatisfied with or even opposing the [Hong Kong] and [central] governments […] Under such context, the court found 11 out of the 17 articles to be seditious.
The prosecution presented 17 articles published by Stand News as evidence of sedition, arguing that the outlet had sought to incite hatred against authorities through them.
The articles included interviews with now-detained activists and opinion pieces that were said to promote “radical political ideologies” and incite hatred against a Beijing-imposed security law.
Those ruled “seditious” included an interview with former Stand News journalist turned activist Gwyneth Ho - who was convicted in May of conspiring to commit subversion over her role in an unofficial primary election along with 44 other pro-democracy figures - and opinion pieces written by self-exiled activist Nathan Law and journalism teacher Allan Au.
Kwok found Chung responsible for publishing 10 of the 11 articles in question, whereas Lam was responsible for publishing the remaining article. He wrote in the judgement:
[Chung and Lam] knew of and agreed with the seditious intention of the articles. They provided Stand News as a publication platform to incite hatred against Hong Kong and China […] It even became a tool to smear and slander the central and [Hong Kong] government” during the 2019 protests.
Kwok also ruled that Stand News had upheld a “localist” ideology and promoted the notion of “localist autonomy” for Hong Kong.
Sentencing was scheduled for September 26, with both Chung and Lam allowed to remain on bail until then.
‘For the powerless, the marginalized’
Representing Chung and Lam, Senior Counsel Audrey Eu told the court that both defendants had prepared their own mitigation letters. She only read aloud Lam’s, while Chung’s was submitted directly to the judge.
In his letter, Lam recalled that he joined the news industry in 2010 when the sector was facing “various concerns,” while “obvious or subtle censorship” was also becoming more frequent.
Stand News was founded against the background that editorial autonomy in Hong Kong’s newsroom was shrinking, Lam said, but the digital news outlet vowed to “speak up for the powerless, the marginalized and the minority,” even in the face of “condemnation and attacks.” His letter read,
I believe the main reason that Stand News could survive for seven years was because readers wanted to read the news that was truly not influenced by corporations, powers or political parties.
During the mitigation hearing on August 29, Eu said Chung had been detained for more than 11 months, while Lam had been in custody for ten months, pending trial. Considering the maximum sentence of the repealed sedition offence in the Crimes Ordinance was two years in prison, the journalists had already served most of their potential jail term.
Eu asked Kwok to impose a prison term that would not exceed the time the pair had already been behind bars.
Eu also revealed in court that Lam was suffering from a “rare disease” that required chemotherapy, and had been in and out of the hospital for treatment. If Lam were to be jailed, it would be difficult for him to access the medical care he needed, the lawyer said.
Eu added that while some may consider the articles published by Stand News as “propaganda,” it was Chung and Lam’s duties as journalists to report on different views.
“You have the discretion… you can consider the jail term… so that they don’t have to return to prison,” Eu told Kwok in Cantonese.
Up to two years imprisonment
Chung and Lam pleaded not guilty to taking part in a conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious materials when the trial began in October 2022.
They face up to two years in jail for the sedition offence, which previously fell under the city’s colonial-era Crimes Ordinance but has been replaced by new security legislation enacted in March 2024 that raises the maximum penalty for sedition to up to 10 years in jail.
The pair were detained for nearly a year following their arrests in December 2021. They were granted bail after the trial began.
During the trial, the defense challenged what it saw as an unfair prosecution, accusing prosecutors of cherry-picking articles and introducing new evidence as the trial unfolded. It said the defendants were legitimate journalists reporting on matters that other news outlets in the city had also covered.
Arrests, closure of Stand News
Stand News gained prominence in 2019 for its coverage of the protests and unrest that rocked Hong Kong that year, sparked by a proposed amendment to the city’s extradition bill.
The protests were largely put down by social distancing measures introduced to stem the spread of COVID-19 in early 2020, and after Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in June that year.
On December 29, 2021, more than 200 national security police raided Stand News’ office, freezing HKD 61 million (about USD 7.9 million) of the outlet’s assets. Hours later, Stand News announced its closure and removed its online content.
Seven people linked to Stand News were arrested in the police raid, but only Chung, Lam, and the outlet were charged with the sedition offence.
The arrests drew concerns over the city’s press freedom from the international community including the UN, the EU, the US, Canada, and the UK. Such concerns were rejected by Beijing and by Teresa Cheng, who was at the time the city’s justice minister.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association said it was “deeply concerned” by the arrests and urged the government to protect press freedom.
Chief Executive John Lee, who was at the then city’s chief secretary, said after the arrests that there were “evil elements that damage press freedom.” He urged media workers to maintain their professionalism and keep a distance from such elements.
Press freedom
In 2022, Hong Kong plummeted 68 places in Reporters Without Borders’ international press freedom ranking to 148th, with the global media watchdog citing the forced closures of Stand News and Apple Daily as signs of declining press freedom.
The city’s leader has repeatedly said that Hong Kong enjoys press freedom in accordance with the law.
Written by Hong Kong Free Press
https://globalvoices.org/2024/08/30/two-hong-kong-journalists-found-guilty-of-sedition-after-a-2-year-trial/
https://globalvoices.org/?p=819456