Hong Kong: Stand News journalists ‘jailed for doing their job’

Responding to the jail sentences for “sedition” handed to two former editors at the defunct Hong Kong media outlet Stand News, Amnesty International’s China Director Sarah Brooks said: 

“The jailing of two journalists simply for doing their job makes this another bleak day for press freedom in Hong Kong.

“The fact they are the first journalists to be sentenced to jail on colonial-era ‘sedition’ charges since before the Hong Kong handover of 1997 indicates that there has rarely been a more dangerous time to work in media in the city.

“Just like the numerous other ‘sedition’ and national security convictions of activists, teachers and lawyers that we have seen in Hong Kong in recent years, today’s sentencing looks designed to reinforce a ‘chilling effect’ that dissuades others in the city – and beyond – from criticizing the authorities. It is rule by fear.

“Once again, we urge the Hong Kong authorities to stop using ‘sedition’ and other national security-related laws as a pretext to crack down on press freedom and other human rights. The two journalists sentenced today have committed no internationally recognized crime and their convictions should be quashed.”

Background 

Stand News’ former chief editor Chung Pui-kuen was today sentenced to 21 months in jail and former acting chief editor Patrick Lam was sentenced to 11 months after they were convicted last month of conspiring to publish seditious publications under Hong Kong’s sedition law. 

Both journalists already spent almost a year in pre-trial detention, meaning Lam will not be returned to jail whereas Chung will.

The prosecution against the journalists, along with Stand News’ parent company Best Pencil (Hong Kong) Limited, was based on 17 allegedly seditious articles, including news reporting, interviews, profiles, and opinion pieces.

Stand News, a non-profit digital news outlet, ceased operations and deleted its website in December 2021 after its newsroom was raided by over 200 national security police officers.  

The trial began in October 2022 and its conclusion was postponed numerous times prior to the courts issuing a long-awaited verdict last month; the sentencing was delayed an additional three weeks, until today. 

The Stand News case is the first trial for sedition – and the first national-security related conviction – of a media company and individual journalists since before 1997, when Hong Kong was handed over from Britain to China.