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Vivian Au

Oscar Liu

Jeffie Lam

The jailing of two Hong Kong journalists under the colonial-era sedition law will reinforce a “chilling effect” on the media but will not have a significant immediate impact on news outlets, which have already become more cautious in recent years, observers and academics have said.
They also said the case reflected the “real dangers” journalists in Hong Kong were facing while performing their duties.
But a government adviser insisted that the ruling would not have any deterrent effect on the industry while offering reassurances press freedoms remained intact.
On Thursday, District Court judge Kwok Wai-kin sentenced former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and ex-acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam Shiu-tung. The judge imposed a jail term of 21 months on Chung and set a starting point of 14 months for Lam before reducing it by three months due to his medical condition.
Lam was released after taking into account his time already spent in custody and consideration of the treatment he needed for a rare disease.
The sentence was handed down after Kwok ruled earlier that Stand News had offered a platform for fostering hatred against Beijing and city authorities with the publication of 11 articles between July 2020 and December 2021.
It was the first time media professionals have been charged and jailed under the colonial-era sedition law since Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule in 1997.
Amnesty International’s China director, Sarah Brooks, said the pair were jailed for “doing their job”, calling it “another bleak day” for press freedom in Hong Kong.
There “had rarely been a more dangerous time to work in media in the city”, she said.
“Just like the numerous other ‘sedition’ and national security convictions of activists, teachers and lawyers that we have seen in Hong Kong in recent years, today’s sentencing looks designed to reinforce a ‘chilling effect’ that dissuades others in the city and beyond from criticising the authorities,” Brooks said.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) said the case reflected the real dangers journalists faced and intensified an ongoing trend towards greater self-censorship among local media.
“HKJA has expressed concern in the past that prosecutors in the Stand News case, [and] the judge in issuing his verdict, have not drawn clear boundaries for the media industry when it comes to sedition, even as the maximum penalty has increased to seven years,” the association said, referring to the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance enacted in March which repealed the colonial-era law.
“This uncertainty can only make journalists in Hong Kong more worried about being blamed at every turn, hampering their ability to perform their constitutionally protected duties.”
Hong Kong’s domestic national security law increased the maximum sentence for sedition to seven years, or 10 years if the crime involved collusion with foreign forces.

In delivering his sentences, Kwok concluded Stand News was a tool to promote localism and that the pair were not doing “genuine journalistic work but taking part in the so-called resistance with the government”, highlighting the outlet had worked to “vilify” authorities during the 2019 protests.
Media professionals also had a responsibility to ensure published materials, including opinion pieces, were backed by “objective facts”, Kwok added.
Noting the ruling had suggested Stand News functioned as a political platform, Professor Francis Lee Lap-fung, of the school of journalism and communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, pointed out that many media outlets around the world also had their own political stances, which was considered normal in some regions.
“The key question is whether media outlets, despite having their own political stances, can still report news in a professional way,” he said.
But Lee said he expected the sentences would not have a significant immediate impact on the city’s media, adding many local outlets already practised self-censoring or engaged in risk management, which resulted in a more cautious approach to publishing articles.
Beijing imposed its national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 in response to the months-long anti-government protests the year before, which reshaped the city’s political climate.
“The effect would ultimately depend on the judgment of each media outlet,” Lee said.
Western countries seldom prosecuted journalists for being seditious and tended not to restrict news reporting due to the potential risks to society, he said.
But former director of public prosecutions Grenville Cross argued that it was “hardly surprising” that Kwok took a higher starting point for sentencing after finding as fact that the offences were in the more serious category involving 11 seditious articles.


“He concluded that the defendants were not engaging in normal journalistic activity but in active resistance that had caused serious damage. In light of those findings, nobody should be surprised that the judge did not adopt a more lenient approach,” he said.
The case would send a message that nobody – including journalists – was above the law in Hong Kong, he said.
“If anybody imagined that journalists could violate the law with impunity, they have now been disabused of that notion,” Cross said.
Ronny Tong Ka-wah, a member of the key decision-making Executive Council and a barrister by trade, said the sentence “might not be unreasonable” and would not have any deterrent effect on the media.
Given the public had a general impression that reporting was typically objective, seditious articles published by news outlets could significantly undermine the government’s credibility, he argued.
Tong also said the case in question, which happened hot on the heels of the 2019 social unrest, might not serve as a suitable precedent for future cases.
A government spokesman said that residents, including journalists, could freely make fact-based comments or criticisms and enjoyed freedom of the press and freedom of speech without fear of violating the law.


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John Lee warns Hong Kong news industry against becoming ‘corrupted’ after Stand News case

Hong Kong court sentences 2 former Stand News editors to 21 months for sedition

Hong Kong courts

Jailing of Hong Kong journalists for sedition will have chilling effect on media, experts say

Patrick Lam, Stand News ex-acting editor-in-chief, leaves the District Court on Thursday. Photo: Sam Tsang

Former editor-in-chief of Stand News, Chung Pui-kuen, arrives at the District Court for sentencing on Thursday. Photo: May Tse

Hong Kong court jails 2 former Stand News editors for up to 21 months for sedition

Chung Pui-kuen, former chief editor of Hong Kong’s Stand News, arrives at the District Court in Wan Chai to face sentencing. Photo: May Tse

Patrick Lam, ex-acting chief editor of Stand News, suffers from a rare disease that requires regular medical treatment, his lawyer said in mitigation. Photo: May Tse

Hong Kong court convicts Stand News, 2 ex-editors of sedition over 11 articles

Stand News former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen leaves Wan Chai Court after the verdict. Photo: Dickson Lee

Patrick Lam is escorted by national security police near his office in Kwun Tong in 2021. Photo: May Tse

News

Hong Kong

Law and Crime

Politics

But Stand News case is unlikely to have significant impact on industry given increased caution journalists now take in doing their jobs, they say


But Stand News case is unlikely to have significant impact on industry given increased caution journalists now take in doing their jobs, they say.


Press freedom in Hong Kong

Hong Kong national security law (NSL)

Hong Kong politics

Hong Kong media