Press freedom in Hong Kong has nosedived in recent years, particularly following the implementation of the National Security Law in 2020, which has led to increased censorship, arrests of journalists, the shutdown of independent media outlets, and a more constrained environment for journalists and news organizations.
Recently, a court in Hong Kong found two editors of the now-defunct Stand News media outlet guilty of conspiring to publish seditious articles in a case that is widely seen as a barometer for the future of media freedoms in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-ruled city once hailed as a bastion of free press in Asia.
The two Stand News editors, Chung Pui-kuen, 54, and Patrick Lam, 36, could be jailed for up to two years when they are sentenced on September 26.
The conviction of the duo is the first for sedition against any journalist or editor since Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China in 1997.
International critics, including the United States government, say this case reflects deteriorating media freedoms under the rule of the CCP.
Stand News, which was once Hong Kong’s leading online media outlet with a mix of critical reportage and commentary, was raided by local police in December 2021 and had its assets frozen, leading to its closure.
Besides Chung, Lam, Stand News’s parent company, Best Pencil (Hong Kong) Ltd., was also charged with conspiracy to publish seditious publications in connection with 17 news articles and commentaries between July 2020 and December 2021.
Chung and Lam had pleaded not guilty, while only Chung was present in court on Thursday (Aug 29) for the verdict.
Chung reportedly edited or authorized most of the articles that the court found to be seditious.
During the trial, Chung told the court he never imagined journalism could attract a sedition charge and the government’s “suppression of critical voices or opinions will cause hatred more easily” than the comment itself, reports Sky News.
The Stand News editor said, while standing in the witness box for 36 days, the media outlet had only “recorded the facts and reported the truth”, and had sought to reflect a spectrum of voices.
On the other hand, Lam wrote in a mitigation letter: “The key to this case is press freedom and freedom of speech…the only way for journalists to defend press freedom is to report.”
District Judge Kwok Wai-kin wrote, “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.”
Government prosecutor Laura Ng, during the 57-day trial, said Stand News had acted as a political platform to promote “illegal” ideologies and incited readers’ hatred against the Chinese regime and local government of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China.
The articles deemed seditious by the court included commentaries written by exiled activists Nathan Law and Sunny Cheung, veteran journalist Allan Au, jailed former Apple Daily associate publisher and Chung’s wife, Chan Pui-man, reports The Epoch Times.
The conviction has drawn international scrutiny amid political repression in the CCP-ruled Hong Kong.
Lord Patten, who is also a patron of the United Kingdom-based Hong Kong Watch, commented, “It is a dark day for press freedom in Hong Kong as Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam have been found guilty for simply doing their jobs as journalists.”
“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,” Patten said.
Asking the international community to closely monitor the freedom of the press in Hong Kong, Lord Patten said, “International lawmakers should consider punitive measures to pressure the Hong Kong authorities to recommit to upholding the Basic Law and Sino-British Joint Declaration which guarantee the observance of free press, including by imposing targeted sanctions on Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee.”
“Lawmakers should also call for the immediate and unconditional release of all Hong Kong journalists in jail, including British citizen Jimmy Lai,” he added.
Commenting on the conviction, Aleksandra Bielakowska, the Asia-Pacific advocacy manager for Reporters without Borders, said, “This verdict is setting a very dangerous precedent that could be further used by Beijing to suppress any independent voices.”
“Dozens of media have been shut down, numerous journalists went [into] exile, and others who remained in Hong Kong face a new reality where crossing red lines could be considered as breaching the national security laws,” Bielakowska told Reuters.
Reporting the deteriorating media freedom in Hong Kong since 2020, Radio Free Asia (RFA), an independent media outlet funded by the United States Congress, said that several independent news outlets in Hong Kong had been shuttered and had staff arrested and prosecuted after the National Security Law in Hong Kong was imposed by China on June 30, 2020, and the Hong Kong government passed Article 23 Safeguarding National Security Law in March.
By far the most influential outlet of the more than seven independent media outlets to be silenced was the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, which was forced to close in June 2021 following police raids on its newsroom and the freezing of its assets, reports RFA, adding that Apple Daily’s founder, Next Digital media mogul Jimmy Lai, a vocal critic of China for decades, is currently standing trial for “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” and “collusion with foreign forces” under the 2020 National Security Law.
In the global press freedom ranking issued annually by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Hong Kong stood at 18th out of 180 countries and territories in 2002, but it slipped to 148th position in 2022, and now the CCP-ruled city’s ranking stands at 135, between the Philippines and South Sudan.
Freedom House, in a broader survey of global civic freedoms that ranked Hong Kong “partly free,” gave the territory a low score of 1 out of 4 when it comes to having “free and Independent media,” as reported by RFA.
The Hong Kong Journalists’ Association, in a Press Freedom Index published just a week before Thursday’s Stand News verdict, found that respondents said press freedom in the city had fallen to its lowest point since the annual survey of working journalists began 11 years ago, according to RFA.
RSF also reckons that at least 28 Hong Kong journalists have been prosecuted under the 2020 National Security Law.
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