A Hong Kong court convicted two former editors of a shuttered news outlet yesterday, in a sedition case that is widely seen as a barometer for the future of media freedom in the territory once hailed as a bastion of free press in Asia.
Stand News former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen (鍾沛權) and former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam (林紹桐) were arrested in December 2021. They pleaded not guilty to the charge of conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious publications. Their sedition trial was Hong Kong’s first involving media since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Stand News was one of the territory’s last media outlets that openly criticized the government amid a crackdown on dissent that followed massive pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Photo: EPA-EFE
It was shut down just months after the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, whose jailed founder Jimmy Lai (黎智英) is fighting collusion charges under a sweeping national security law enacted in 2020.
Chung and Lam were charged under a colonial-era sedition law that has been used increasingly to crush dissidents. They face up to two years in prison and a fine of HK$5,000 (US$641) for a first offense.
Best Pencil (Hong Kong) Ltd, the outlet’s holding company, was convicted on the same charge. It had no representatives during the trial, which began in October 2022.
Judge Kwok Wai-kin (郭偉健) in his written judgement said that Stand News became a tool for smearing the Beijing and Hong Kong governments during the 2019 protests.
“When speech, in the relevant context, is deemed to have caused potential damage to national security and intends to seriously undermine the authority of the Chinese central government or the Hong Kong government ... it must be stopped,” he said.
The case was centered on 17 articles. Some promoted “illegal ideologies,” or smearing the security law and law enforcement officers, prosecutors said.
Judge Kwok found that 11 of the articles carried seditious intent, including commentaries written by activist Nathan Law (羅冠聰) and esteemed journalists Allan Au (區家麟) and Chan Pui-man (陳沛敏). Chan is also Chung’s wife.
Chung appeared calm after the verdict was handed down, while Lam did not appear in court due to health reasons. The pair were given bail pending sentencing on Sept. 26.
Defense lawyer Audrey Eu (余若薇) read out a mitigation statement from Lam, who said Stand News reporters sought to run a news outlet with fully independent editorial standards.
“The only way for journalists to defend press freedom is reporting,” Eu quoted Lam as saying.
Eu did not read out Chung’s mitigation letter in court. However, local media quoted his letter, in which he wrote that many Hong Kongers who are not journalists have held to their beliefs, and some have lost their own freedom because they care about everyone’s freedom in the community.
“Accurately recording and reporting their stories and thoughts is an inescapable responsibility of journalists,” he wrote.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS