HONG KONG: A court in Hong Kong has jailed two journalists who were found guilty of sedition.
The two journalists were editors at the now inoperative news outlet, Stand News media. Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam had published articles on China’s crackdown on civil liberties in the city.
According to a BBC report, Chung was sentenced to 21 months while Lam was given 11 months, although he was released on medical grounds. Stand News publisher, Best Pencil was fined HK$5,000 (USD$643).
Hong Kong jails two journalists for sedition https://t.co/pYZb55LP3v
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) September 26, 2024
The case is the first sedition case since the handing over of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997.
The trial which began in October 2022 was presided over by district court judge Kwok Wai-kin Kwok. Kwok found that the 11 articles published by Stand News were seditious and that Stand News was a threat to national security.
In his judgment, Kwok said that the newspaper’s editorial stance had supported “Hong Kong local autonomy”.
”It even became a tool to smear and vilify the Central Authorities [in Beijing] and the [Hong Kong] SAR Government,” he said.
The journalists were charged by the archaic colonial-era law rather than the more controversial and newer national security law.
Activists have been upset about the sentencing. Reporters Without Borders said to the BBC that it is “yet another nail in the coffin for press freedom in Hong Kong”.
The United States has also called out the prosecutions of journalists in Hong Kong, saying that the case “creates a chilling effect on others in the press and media”.
Asia-based Advocacy Manager Aleksandra Bielakowska told the BBC that the Hong Kong judiciary has become “a political tool, used to threaten those who dare to speak independently”.
“Like in China, the regime is trying to create its own narratives, and make sure that all reporters will only be ‘telling Hong Kong’s story well,’
”Deliberately targeting independent media and its journalists have left a huge void in Hong Kong’s media landscape that will be very difficult to rebuild,” she said.