Taipei, August 29, 2024— The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Thursday’s conviction by a Hong Kong court of former Stand News editors Patrick Lam and Chung Pui-kuen on charges of conspiracy to publish seditious publications and calls on authorities to stop using anti-state charges against journalists.
“The guilty verdict is another nail in the coffin for Hong Kong’s press freedom,” said Iris Hsu, CPJ’s China representative. “It shows the government’s determination to destroy independent journalism in the city. Hong Kong authorities must stop persecuting the media for their critical reporting.”
The editors of the now defunct independent news site, who are out on bail, are due to be sentenced on September 26 and could be jailed for two years.
In 2021, hundreds of police raided Stand News’ offices and arrested Lam, Chung, and four others affiliated with the outlet. The delivery of the verdict in Lam and Chung’s trial was postponed multiple times since it concluded in June 2023.
Hong Kong Police Force and Chief Executive John Lee’s office did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed requests for comment.
China was the world’s worst jailer of journalists, with 44 behind bars, in CPJ’s 2023 prison census. Those held include CPJ’s 2021 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award winner Jimmy Lai, founder of the shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, who has been behind bars since 2020 and is facing life imprisonment if convicted of conspiring to collude with foreign forces.
After publication, Hong Kong’s security bureau told CPJ by email that “the ideology of Stand News was localism which excluded China, and that it even became a tool to smear and vilify the Central Authorities and the HKSAR Government during the ‘anti-extradition amendment bill incidents.'”
Editor’s note: The alert was updated to include the security bureau’s response.