(Bloomberg) — A Hong Kong court has found two former editors guilty of publishing allegedly seditious articles, the first time journalists have been convicted of sedition in decades and a move likely to heighten concerns about press freedom.
The city’s district court on Thursday announced the verdict against Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, editors-in-chief of the closed pro-democracy publishing house Stand News, and its parent company. The sedition case is the first involving a media company since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule.
The trial was seen as a barometer of press freedom in the once permissive financial metropolis after Chinese authorities cracked down on dissent with a national security law in response to massive protests for more democracy in 2019.
Chung and Lam were charged with participating in “conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious publications,” an offense punishable by up to two years in prison. They pleaded not guilty when the trial began in 2022.
Prosecutors cited as evidence 17 articles published by Stand News in 2020 and 2021, including interviews with pro-democracy activists, including those found guilty in another trial under the national security law imposed by Beijing.
Stand News, which covered the 2019 protests extensively, was shut down in late 2021 after authorities raided its office and froze its assets. Previously, there had been similar raids on the offices of Apple Daily and its parent company Next Digital, whose former editors and founder Jimmy Lai were also accused of publishing inflammatory material.
Lai will appear as defence counsel in a key national security case later this year after a court rejected his request to overturn charges that could send the 76-year-old to life in prison. Lai’s lawyers will defend the pro-democracy tycoon when the hearing resumes on November 20.
Two dozen governments have criticized Hong Kong and Chinese authorities for their attacks on press freedom and suppression of independent local media in the city, citing the cases of Stand News and Apple Daily. Diplomats from the United States, Britain and the European Union were among the Western representatives who attended the verdict, which was delivered by a judge in a courtroom and a hall packed with members of the public and the press.
Chung and Lam were charged under a colonial-era sedition law that has been revived in recent years to target critics, including a radio host found guilty of uttering inflammatory phrases. The city passed its own national security law in March that increased the maximum penalty for sedition to up to 10 years in prison.
In Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index, Hong Kong ranks 135th out of 180, having fallen from 18th place in two decades.
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