The two veterans of Hong Kong’s long boisterous news media scene didn’t shy away from publishing pro-democracy voices on their Stand News site, even as China cranked up its national security clampdown to silence critics in the city.
Then the police came knocking and, more than 2½ years later, a judge Thursday convicted the two journalists — the former editor-in-chief of Stand News, Chung Pui-kuen, and his successor, Patrick Lam — of conspiring to publish seditious materials on the now-defunct liberal news outlet. Both face potential prison sentences.
The landmark ruling highlighted how far press freedom has shrunk in the city, where local news outlets already self-censor to survive and some foreign news organizations have left or moved out staff amid increasing scrutiny from authorities.
During the trial, prosecutors characterized news articles and opinion pieces published by the two as biased against the government and a threat to national security. The articles were similar to those Stand News had been publishing for years. But after authorities crushed protests that rocked the city in 2019, China imposed a national security law, and tolerance for dissent in the city’s freewheeling media began to evaporate.
The two editors have maintained their innocence. Chung said in his court testimony that they were operating within journalistic principles, to deliver stories with news value and of public interest.
In his ruling, the judge in the case, Kwok Wai-kin, wrote that it was necessary to balance freedom of speech "with the prevention of the potential damage wrought by incendiary publications.” Kwok is one of the judges hand-picked by Hong Kong’s chief executive to hear national security cases.
The two editors, who both spent almost a year in prison after their arrests, had their bail extended pending sentencing expected in late September. Lam did not attend Thursday’s hearing because of health issues, his lawyer said.
The Stand News journalists were charged in 2021 under a British colonial-era sedition law, which carries a maximum sentence of up to two years in prison. But Hong Kong’s new national security law introduced this year increased the maximum sentence for sedition to seven years — and 10, if an "external force” was involved. It replaced the sedition law.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times © 2025 The New York Times Company
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