Guilty Verdict for Hong Kong Journalists Highlights Crackdown on Press Freedom

Did anyone actually doubt that this would not happen?

In a city once hailed as a beacon of freedom and a crossroads of cultures, a harsh verdict has now been delivered—a stark symbol of a deeper malaise. Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, two journalists who dared to speak against the encroaching shadows, have been found guilty of sedition in Hong Kong, a place where words once flowed freely like the Pearl River itself. These editors of Stand News, a pro-democracy publication that stood firm against the rising tide of authoritarianism, now face the cold reality of imprisonment. The courtroom’s judgment did more than condemn two men; it indicted an era, casting a pall over the future of free expression in a city that once prided itself on being a sanctuary of dissent.

#Hongkong journalist Chung Pui-kuen, former editor-in-chief of Stand News, walked out of court after being found guilty for publishing seditious news articles under a British colonial-era sedition law. Last time the law was used against the media was reportedly in the 1950s. pic.twitter.com/3LQ4uiubvd

— Shirley Lau (@lauinhk) August 29, 2024

The air in the courtroom was thick with tension as Judge Kwok Wai-kin read out his verdict. His words cut through the silence like a knife, declaring Stand News a “danger to national security,” its mission twisted, its voice deemed a weapon against the state. He spoke of the publication’s editorial stance as a threat, accusing it of promoting “Hong Kong local autonomy” and wielding it as a cudgel to “smear and vilify” both Beijing’s Central Authorities and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. The courtroom, a theater of suppressed whispers and anxious glances, felt the weight of history bearing down, as if the walls themselves could barely contain the enormity of what was unfolding.

Rights groups and advocates for free speech around the world recoiled at the news, their outcries like distant thunder, warning of the storm brewing over Hong Kong’s skies. Reporters Without Borders, a sentinel in the darkening night, called out to the world, urging Hong Kong to end its “nefarious campaign against press freedom.” The phrase resonated like a bell tolling in the night, echoing the fears of many who watched from afar, who knew that this verdict was not just an isolated act of judicial force but a harbinger of darker times.

The charges brought against Chung and Lam were rooted not in the recent, much-feared National Security Law but in an older, more arcane statute—a colonial-era sedition law, long left to gather dust in the annals of the past. It is as if history itself had been exhumed, its cold, bony fingers reaching out to clutch the present in a deathly grip. A law that had rarely been touched was now being used as a hammer to silence dissent, to send a message that no words could be uttered without consequence.

A Hong Kong court found two editors at the now-defunct Stand News media outlet guilty of sedition. This is the first sedition conviction against any journalist or editor since Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China in 1997 https://t.co/fF3SRAwBFC pic.twitter.com/ENAXOD6WAo

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 29, 2024

As they await their sentencing later this month, Chung and Lam are symbols not just of a trial but of a city on trial, a city whose soul is being tugged between its storied past and an uncertain future. Stand News was among the last of its kind, a lighthouse in the storm, gaining prominence during the 2019 protests when the city itself seemed to rise in defiance. Yet the enactment of the National Security Law in 2020 marked the beginning of an end—a slow, painful unraveling of freedoms that were once as common as the air breathed on Victoria Peak.

In December 2021, Stand News met its demise, not in quiet surrender but under the jackboot of a raid. Over 200 police officers swarmed their offices, tearing apart not just files and computers but the very fabric of journalistic freedom. Seven were arrested, accused of “conspiracy to publish seditious publications.” The charge was as murky as it was menacing—a shadow cast long and dark, chilling any who might dare to follow.

Two Hong Kong journalists will learn the outcome this week of their landmark sedition trial, whose verdict could set the tone for the future of journalism in the Chinese city. pic.twitter.com/Uze17ccZM7

— World Times (@WorldTimesWT) August 29, 2024

The world watches, a witness to Hong Kong’s fall from grace, its descent from a city ranked 18th in press freedom to a dismal 135th, a statistic that speaks of a slow suffocation. Cédric Alviani of Reporters Without Borders didn’t mince his words, calling the verdict an “appalling decision that sets a very dangerous precedent for journalists.” His warning was stark: “From now on, anyone reporting on facts that stray from the official narrative could be sentenced for sedition.” The fear was palpable, a realization that the line between truth and treason had become dangerously thin.

And so, the poets and essayists, the dreamers and the doers, find themselves standing on a precipice, peering into an abyss where their words could be the last breath of a dying freedom. The winds of change blow cold and hard, carrying with them the whispers of a city that once was—a city where the flow of imagination and reality moved freely, now caught in the vice grip of silence.

Major Points

• Journalists Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam of Stand News were found guilty of sedition in Hong Kong, signaling a severe blow to freedom of expression in the city.
• Judge Kwok Wai-kin labeled Stand News a threat to national security, condemning its editorial stance as a danger to Hong Kong’s stability and accusing it of vilifying government authorities.
• The verdict has prompted condemnation from international rights groups, with Reporters Without Borders urging an end to Hong Kong’s crackdown on press freedom and warning of further restrictions.
• The charges were based on an old sedition law, rarely used until now, indicating a shift towards using historical legal tools to suppress dissent.
• Hong Kong’s press freedom ranking has dramatically fallen, and the conviction of these journalists sets a dangerous precedent for the future of free speech in the region.

Lap Fu Ip – Reprinted with permission of Whatfinger News