Verdict awaited for Hong Kong journalists accused of sedition, to test press freedom

Hong Kong, August 29 (ANI): Two Hong Kong journalists will face the result of their historic sedition trial this week, Al Jazeera reported, adding that the decision may have a significant impact on the direction of media in the city.

The two journalists, Patrick Lam and Chung Pui-kuen, were editors of Stand News, an independent news organisation that has since dissolved. Should they be proven guilty, the colonial-era sedition laws of Hong Kong may send them to prison for up to two years.

Together with five other Stand News employees and board members, including Margaret Ng, a former politician and attorney, and pop singer turned well-known pro-democracy activist Denise Ho, the two were taken into custody by Hong Kong’s national security police in December 2021.

Stand News shut down shortly after the police raided its offices in December 2021.

In 2020, Beijing enforced new national security regulations in reaction to months of anti-government protests that had occurred last year.

According to Al Jazeera, sedition laws had been implemented in Hong Kong from the time it was a British colony, but they had remained dormant until then.

Prosecutors started prosecuting Hong Kong residents with the crime of “sedition” for the first time in more than 50 years, in addition to new offences including “collusion with foreign forces” and “subversion.”

Chung and Lam’s trial will be closely observed because, although not the first sedition prosecution since the security law sparked a political revolution, it is the first to deal directly with journalism and media, according to a Hong Kong-based observer who has followed the case.

The prosecutors claim that Chung and Lam planned the publication of 17 anti-government seditious articles and opinion pieces, turning Stand News into a “political platform” rather than a free press.

The pieces featured commentary from political figures living in exile as well as news items concerning the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.