Two journalists who led a pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong have been found guilty of sedition.
Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, two editors at the now-defunct Stand News media outlet, could now face a maximum jail term of two years.
This is the first sedition case against journalists in Hong Kong since the territory’s handover from Britain to China in 1997.
Their newspaper’s editorial line supported “Hong Kong local autonomy”, according to the district court judge who found the pair guilty.
In a written statement, Judge Kwok Wai-kin said that Stand News had become a “danger to national security”.
“It even became a tool to smear and vilify the Central Authorities [in Beijing] and the [Hong Kong] SAR Government,” he said in a written judgement.
Stand News was among a handful of relatively new online news portals that especially gained prominence during the 2019 pro-democracy protests.
But since the introduction of a controversial national security law, a host of media outlets have closed in Hong Kong, including the popular anti-establishment publication Apple Daily. Its owner Jimmy Lai was jailed in 2021.
Stand News was among the last openly pro-democratic publications until its closure in December 2021, which saw seven arrested and accused of a “conspiracy to publish seditious publications”.
The case has drawn international scrutinity and condemnation from western countries.
The United States has repeatedly condemned the prosecutions of journalists in Hong Kong, saying that the case against the both editors “creates a chilling effect on others in the press and media”.
