Stand News, Hong Kong’s biggest remaining pro-democracy news outlet, yesterday announced on Facebook that it would immediately lay off all staff and cease operations, and take down its Web site and social media accounts within days.
The move came hours after more than 200 police raided the outlet’s newsroom, froze about HK$61 million (US$7.8 million) of assets and arrested seven people connected to it on a colonial-era sedition law.
Those arrested included acting Stand News editor-in-chief Patrick Lam (林紹桐) and Denise Ho (何韻詩), a pop star who had testified about Hong Kong before the US Congress.
Photo: AFP
Stand News had briefly been the largest Chinese-language media outlet publishing coverage critical of the Hong Kong government after Apple Daily’s closure in July under pressure from a similar probe.
The site had braced for police scrutiny, announcing in June that it would purge opinion pieces from its Web site, and stop accepting subscriptions and sponsorships.
The sudden fall of Stand News is the latest in a series of devastating blows this year to Hong Kong’s once-vibrant opposition, including the arrests of scores of prominent democracy advocates and the election of new Legislative Council vetted by Beijing.
Photo: AP
The campaign has remade Hong Kong as it prepares to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Chinese rule — halfway through Beijing’s promise to leave the territory’s basic policies “unchanged for 50 years.”
“A vibrant and trustworthy global financial hub requires creativity, transparency of information, and plurality of opinions,” said Eric Lai (黎恩灝), a Hong Kong law fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Asian Law. “Hong Kong will eventually lose these core elements when protection of free speech becomes lip service.”
Those arrested yesterday were detained on a once-little-used sedition law dating back to 1938 that still refers to “Her Majesty” and “the Crown.” Hong Kong authorities have seized on the powerful law to prosecute opposition figures in addition to the four crimes outlined in the National Security Law.
Others arrested yesterday for conspiring to “publish seditious materials” included former Stand News editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen (鍾沛權), and former board members Margaret Ng (吳靄儀), Chow Tat-chi (周達智) and Christine Fang (方敏生), the South China Morning Post reported.
The sedition offense carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison and a HK$5,000 fine.
A Global Times article cited unnamed observers who hailed the arrest of Ho as the “best Christmas present,” saying that those arrested had been working with the US to destabilize Hong Kong.
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned yesterday’s raid.
“Authorities must release the six and drop all charges against them immediately, if Hong Kong is to retain any semblance of the freedoms that its residents enjoyed only a few years ago,” the group’s Asia program coordinator Steven Butler said.
With the closure of Stand News, only a handful of independent outlets remain, including the English-language Hong Kong Free Press.
Public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong has had hard-hitting programs canceled and former staff members have accused the organization of purging voices critical of the government.
Hong Kong Chief Secretary John Lee (李家超), a former police official who was earlier this year promoted to the territory’s No. 2 post, dismissed concerns that local media are under political pressure, telling reporters that those who used the media to pursue political goals were the “evil elements” damaging freedom of the press.
“Professional media workers should recognize that these are the bad apples who are abusing their position by wearing a false coat of media worker,” Lee said.
In Taipei, the Mainland Affairs Council yesterday condemned the Hong Kong government for human rights violations, saying that recent events “revealed the lie behind communist China’s slogan of ‘one country, two systems.’”
Citing the detention of the Stand News staff and imprisonment of Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai (黎智英), the council said in a news release that “any intelligent observer would conclude ... that nothing short of a literary inquisition is being conducted.”
China’s defenders should stop being the enablers and accomplices of Beijing’s bad behavior, it said.
Despite guarantees in the Basic Law for freedom of speech and freedom of the press, recent incidents show that human rights in Hong Kong are in free fall, it said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-Wong tomorrow, which it said would possibly make landfall near central Taiwan. As of 2am yesterday, Fung-Wong was about 1,760km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving west-northwest at 26kph. It is forecast to reach Luzon in the northern Philippines by tomorrow, the CWA said. After entering the South China Sea, Typhoon Fung-Wong is likely to turn northward toward Taiwan, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said, adding that it would likely make landfall near central Taiwan. The CWA expects to issue a land
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it is expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong this afternoon and a land warning tomorrow. As of 1pm, the storm was about 1,070km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, and was moving west-northwest at 28 to 32kph, according to CWA data. The storm had a radius of 250km, with maximum sustained winds of 173kph and gusts reaching 209kph, the CWA added. The storm is forecast to pass near Luzon in the Philippines before entering the South China Sea and potentially turning northward toward Taiwan, the CWA said. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday said that China using armed force against Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, allowing the country to mobilize the Japanese armed forces under its security laws. Takaichi made the remarks during a parliamentary session while responding to a question about whether a "Taiwan contingency" involving a Chinese naval blockade would qualify as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, according to a report by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. "If warships are used and other armed actions are involved, I believe this could constitute a survival-threatening situation," Takaichi was quoted as saying in the report. Under Japan’s security legislation,
RSS