After being found criminal in a location rebellion case last month, two journalists who ran a pro-democracy paper were imprisoned by a Hong Kong court.
Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, readers of the now-defunct Stand News media outlet, had written reports about the restrictions on civil rights in the area under Chinese rule.
Chung was sentenced to 21 decades, while Lam was given 11 weeks, but was released on health grounds. The editor behind Stand News- Best Crayon- has been fined HK$ 5, 000 ( US$ 643, £480 ).
It is the first journalist rebellion case in Hong Kong since 1997 when the territory was handed over from Britain to China.
After a lengthy trial, which began in October 2022 and was originally scheduled to last just 20 days, district court judge Kwok Wai-kin Kwok found that 11 articles published by Stand News were seditious and that Stand News had become a “danger to national security”.
Their newspaper’s journal range supported” Hong Kong native autonomy”, Mr Kwok said in a written statement.
” It even became a tool to smear and vilify the Central Authorities]in Beijing ] and the] Hong Kong ] SAR Government”, he added.
Both editors were charged under the controversial national security law ( NSL), which was used by prosecutors until recently, but it was still used during the colonial era.
Stand News was one of the few comparatively new online media sources that gained traction during the 2019 pro-democracy demonstrations.
Right parties have condemned the punishment. Reporters Without Territories claimed for the BBC that this is “yet another nail in the coffin for media freedom in Hong Kong.”
Numerous internet stores have shut down in Hong Kong since the NSL was introduced in 2020.
Reviewers say the law effectively reduces the state’s once-prized criminal autonomy, making it easier to condemn demonstrators and activists. China defends it as necessary to maintain balance.
Stand News was one of the final explicitly democratic papers until its closure in December of that year, when more than 200 police officers were dispatched to attack its business.
Seven people were arrested and accused of a” crime to publish seditious magazines”, which included conversations with pro-democracy protesters.
Hong Kong’s present chief executive John Lee praised the officers operation at the time, calling those detained “vil elements that harm hit freedom.”
Westward countries have been under scrutiny and condemned for the event.
The United States has consistently criticized the Hong Kong journalists ‘ trials, claiming that the situation involving the two editors” creates a chilling effect on others in the media and media.”
According to the World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders, the former British colony has seen its standing fall from 18th area to 135th place over the past 20 years.
Aleksandra Bielakowska, their Asia-based advocate, told the BBC that the Hong Kong courts has evolved into a “political tool” that is “used to intimidate those who dare to speak freely.”
” Like in China, the government is trying to create its own stories, and make sure that all writers will be just’ telling Hong Kong’s history well ‘”, she said.
” Deliberately targeting separate internet and its journalists has created a huge hole in Hong Kong’s multimedia environment that will be very challenging to fill,” she continued.