In a case that has drawn international attention as a result of a security crackdown in the China-ruled city, a Hong Kong court on Thursday ( Aug 29 ) found two editors of the now-defunct Stand News media outlet guilty of conspiring to publish seditious articles.
Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, the two reporters, may spend up to two years in prison when they are sentenced on September 26. Since Hong Kong’s transition from Britain to China in 1997, they have been convicted of insurrection for the first time against a columnist or writer.
Detractors, including the United States government, say their situation reflects deteriorating press freedoms in the area.  ,
Stand News, after Hong Kong’s leading online advertising with a mix of critical editorials and remark, was raided by police in December 2021, and had its resources frozen, leading to its closing.
Chung, 54, Lam, 36, and the site’s family business Best Pencil ( Hong Kong ) Ltd were all charged with conspiracy to publish seditious papers in connection with 17 news papers and essays between July 2020 and December 2021.
Simply Chung was present in court on Thursday for the ruling, with both Chung and Lam making a plea of not guilty. He edited or authorized the majority of the articles that the judge found to become subversive.
” When speech is assessed as having seditious intent, the relevant actual circumstances must have been taken into consideration, being viewed as causing potential damage to national security, ( and ) must be stopped”, wrote district Court Judge Kwok Wai-kin.
Government counsel Laura Ng claimed that Stand News had used it as a social platform to “promote illegal” ideologies and had incited readers ‘ hatred of the Chinese and Hong Kong governments during the 57-day trial.
The judge cited the opinions of exiled activists Nathan Law and Sunny Cheung, former journalist Allan Au, a previous Apple Daily affiliate publication in jail, and Chung’s woman Chan Pui-man in writing the articles.