Hong Kong chief editor imprisoned for sedition

A Hong Kong judge jailed a former chief editor of pro-democracy outlet Stand News for sedition on Thursday, handing down a 21-month prison term in the landmark cas

Chung Pui-kuen, the former chief editor of Hong Kong's now shuttered pro-democracy news outlet Stand News, arrives at the District Court in Hong Kong for sentencing. Picture: AFP

A Hong Kong judge jailed a former chief editor of pro-democracy outlet Stand News for sedition on Thursday, handing down a 21-month prison term in the landmark case.

The sentencing of Chung Pui-kuen is the latest crackdown on free speech in the former British colony where critics of China have been jailed or forced into exile after huge pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Chung, 55, and fellow chief editor Patrick Lam, 36, were in charge of Stand News, a Chinese-language website that gained a massive following during the protests before it was shut down in December 2021.

District Court judge Kwok Wai-kin found the pair guilty last month of “conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious publications”. Stand News’ parent company, Best Pencil Limited, was also found guilty.

Chung’s 21-month sentence makes him the first journalist to be jailed for sedition since Hong Kong came under Chinese rule in 1997.

Lam received a sentence reduction and will not return to jail, owing to time already served, with Kwok saying a prison term “could endanger his life” due to serious health issues.

Kwok said the two defendants, as well as the publication, were “not doing genuine journalistic work”. “They were taking part in the so-called resistance. They stood on the side of the protesters to oppose the government,” he said.

Swift condemnation followed from the EU, UN, as well as the US consulate in Hong Kong, which called for the government to cease targeting journalists.

“The Hong Kong court’s sentencing ... is a direct attack on media freedom,” a spokesman for the US consulate said.

The EU called on the government “to restore confidence in press freedom in Hong Kong” while the UN office said the colonial-era sedition provisions should be repealed.

The Hong Kong government said that the crimes involved were “very serious” and that concerns over press freedom were attempts at “smearing” the city.

Defence lawyer Audrey Eu had argued for leniency for Lam because he had been suffering from an immune condition that left him with “less than 30 per cent” of kidney function. “Our largest concern is that if (Lam) has to return to prison, in case anything happens there … that may put his life in danger,” she told the court.

Chung and Lam had each spent nearly a year behind bars before they were granted bail at the time of their trial.

AFP