Two Hong Kong journalists sentenced to jail in sedition case criticized by U.S.

Two Hong Kong journalists who led a pro-democracy newspaper were sentenced to jail on Thursday after being convicted of sedition last month in a verdict seen as a further blow to press freedom in the Chinese territory.

Chung Pui-kuen, the former editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Stand News, was sentenced to 21 months, while Patrick Lam, the newspaper’s former acting editor-in-chief, received 14 months as a starting point but after reductions was immediately released because of a health condition.

They had been found guilty over 11 articles the court deemed as having “seditious intentions,” including several commentaries by Hong Kong pro-democracy activists living in self-exile. Both men had already served close to a year in pre-trial detention.

The U.S. and other Western governments had criticized their conviction, with the U.S. calling it a “direct attack on media freedom” while the European Union said it “risks further inhibiting the pluralistic exchange of ideas and the free flow of information.”

Hong Kong authorities expressed “strong disapproval” of such criticisms, saying that “journalists, like everyone else, have an obligation to abide by all the laws.”

Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997 on the promise that its civil liberties would be preserved for 50 years, was long seen as a beacon of press freedom in Asia. But critics say press freedom has deteriorated as part of a broader crackdown on dissent since Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020 in response to mass pro-democracy demonstrations that roiled the city for months in 2019.

Chinese and Hong Kong authorities say the national security law, as well as local national security legislation enacted in March, were necessary to restore stability after the protests, which sometimes turned violent.

Chung and Lam, whose trial began in 2022, were the first journalists since Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule to be convicted under a colonial-era law that made sedition, defined as inciting hatred or contempt against the Chinese central government, the Hong Kong government or the judiciary, punishable by up to two years in prison.

That law has since been replaced by the local national security legislation, known informally as Article 23, which raises the maximum penalty for sedition to seven years, and 10 years if an offense is found to have involved “collusion with foreign forces.”

On Thursday, many people waited in line to attend the hearing, with some bringing their own chairs. Both Chung, 55, and Lam, 36, were at the sentencing, which began more than two hours late.

Their lawyer, Audrey Eu, argued that Chung and Lam were simply doing their jobs as journalists, reporting on social tensions and different people’s opinions.

Judge Kwok Wai-kin, who was handpicked by Hong Kong’s top leader to preside over the trial, rejected this claim and said the defendants were not convicted for fulfilling their responsibilities as journalists. He also questioned whether Stand News was doing pure journalism.

“The responsibility of journalists is to tell the truth, not to spread falsehoods or half-truths,” Kwok said. “Only those who intend to skirt the boundaries of the law would worry about inadvertently breaking it.”

Founded as a nonprofit in 2014, Stand News was known for its political and social coverage, gaining new prominence during the 2019 protests. Though government officials criticized the paper’s reporting, that year it was rated among the city’s most credible news outlets by Hong Kong residents, according to a survey by researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

In 2021, national security police raided the Stand News office, froze its assets and arrested several people, including Lam and Chung. The outlet shut down the same day and erased all its content.

“We are not targeting reporters. We are targeting national security offenses,” Steve Li, chief superintendent of the national security police, said at the time.

In a mitigation letter submitted to the court, Lam said a police officer told him in the early days of his detention, “We’re each serving our own master.”

Looking back, Lam said, “I regret not taking the opportunity to explain to the officer that journalists do not serve anyone, pledge allegiance to anyone, or oppose anyone. If we are truly loyal to anyone, it can only be to the public.”

Chung wrote in his mitigation letter that many Hong Kong journalists had “steadfastly” remained in the field despite the growing pressures they face.

“To truthfully record and report their stories and ideas is a responsibility that journalists cannot shirk,” he said.

Earlier this month, the Hong Kong Journalists Association, a local press group, said dozens of Hong Kong journalists had been targeted by a “systemic” online and offline harassment and intimidation campaign that was the largest in scale the group had ever seen.

Selina Cheng, the chair of the group, said that since June, dozens of journalists from more than a dozen media outlets had received threatening and defamatory emails and letters at their homes, workplaces and elsewhere. More than a dozen journalists said complaints had also been sent to their family members, employers or landlords, some of which warned that continued association with the journalists risked breaching national security laws.

Other journalists were the subject of “hateful content” online, some of which combined their photos with knives and shooting targets.

Hong Kong law enforcement officials have encouraged the affected journalists to file police reports and say the cases will be handled impartially, though Hong Kong’s top leader, John Lee, has declined to explicitly condemn the harassment.

There have also been rising reports of non-local journalists being denied work visas or entry to Hong Kong, an international media hub.

Aleksandra Bielakowska, a Taiwan-based advocacy officer at Reporters Without Borders, called the Stand News verdict “another nail in the coffin” for Hong Kong’s press freedom.

“It marks the first time in the modern history of Hong Kong when a journalist, reporting on the facts, is receiving punishment for their articles critical of the authorities,” she said in an email Thursday, adding that it sets a “dangerous” precedent that could be used to further suppress dissent.

Hong Kong ranked 135th out of 180 countries and territories in Reporters Without Borders’ 2024 World Press Freedom Index, compared with 70th in 2018.

After Lam and Chung were convicted last month, the office of China’s Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong said it was a “clear case of justice being served and has nothing to do with press freedom.”

“Despite sanctions and negative narratives, Hong Kong today remains open and free, with journalists able to carry out their work without hindrance,” it said.