U.S. criticizes two Hong Kong journalists who were given jail sentences in a sedition case.
Two Hong Kong journalists who led a pro-democracy newspaper were sentenced to jail Thursday after they were convicted of sedition last month in a verdict seen as a further blow to press freedom in the Chinese territory.
Chung Pui-kuen, the former editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Stand News, was sentenced to 21 months, while Patrick Lam, the newspaper’s former acting editor-in-chief, received 14 months as a starting point but after reductions was immediately released because of a serious health condition. Both men had already served close to a year in pretrial detention.
Founded as a nonprofit in 2014, Stand News became known for its live-streamed coverage of mass pro-democracy demonstrations that roiled the city for months in 2019, gaining hundreds of thousands of followers and angering government officials. It shut down in 2021 after a raid by national security police.
Chung and Lam were convicted last month over 11 articles deemed as having “seditious intentions,” including several commentaries by Hong Kong pro-democracy activists now living in self-exile.
The U.S. and other Western governments had criticized the verdict, with the U.S. calling it a “direct attack on media freedom” while the European Union said it “risks further inhibiting the pluralistic exchange of ideas and the free flow of information.”
Hong Kong authorities welcomed both the conviction and the prison sentences, saying after the verdict that “journalists, like everyone else, have an obligation to abide by all the laws.”
Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997 on the promise that its civil liberties would be preserved for 50 years, was long seen as a beacon of press freedom in Asia. But critics say press freedom has deteriorated as part of a broader crackdown on dissent since Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020 in response to the protests.
Chinese and Hong Kong authorities say the national security law, as well as local national security legislation enacted in March, were necessary to restore stability after the protests, which sometimes turned violent.
Chung and Lam, whose trial began in 2022, were the first journalists since Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule to be convicted under a colonial-era law that made sedition, defined as inciting hatred or contempt against the Chinese central government, the Hong Kong government or the judiciary, punishable by up to two years in prison.
That law has since been replaced by the local national security legislation, known informally as Article 23, which raises the maximum penalty for sedition to seven years and to 10 years if an offense is found to have involved “collusion with foreign forces.”
On Thursday, many people waited in line to attend the hearing, with some bringing their own chairs. Both Chung, 55, and Lam, 36, were at the sentencing, which began more than two hours late.
Their lawyer, Audrey Eu, argued that Chung and Lam were simply doing their jobs as journalists, reporting on social tensions and different people’s opinions.
Judge Kwok Wai-kin, whom Hong Kong’s top leader handpicked to preside over the trial, rejected that claim and said the defendants were not convicted for fulfilling their responsibilities as journalists. He also questioned whether Stand News was doing pure journalism.
“The responsibility of journalists is to tell the truth, not to spread falsehoods or half-truths,” Kwok said. “Only those who intend to skirt the boundaries of the law would worry about inadvertently breaking it.”
In a statement early Friday, a Hong Kong government spokesperson said the articles at issue “were not based on facts,” and that Chung and Lam had used Stand News as “a tool to smear and vilify” Hong Kong and Chinese authorities.
“It is evident that they sided with the protesters against the government,” said the spokesperson, who noted that Stand News had about 1.6 million followers.
The spokesperson also suggested the sentences were not strong enough.
In a mitigation letter submitted to the court, Lam said a police officer told him in the early days of his detention, “We’re each serving our own master.”
Looking back, Lam said, “I regret not taking the opportunity to explain to the officer that journalists do not serve anyone, pledge allegiance to anyone, or oppose anyone. If we are truly loyal to anyone, it can only be to the public.”
Chung wrote in his mitigation letter that many Hong Kong journalists had “steadfastly” remained in the field despite the growing pressures they face.
“To truthfully record and report their stories and ideas is a responsibility that journalists cannot shirk,” he said.
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