Hong Kong sentences Stand News editors under sedition laws, for the first time since the handover

Today, Judge Kwok Wai-kin of the Wanchai District Court sentenced Stand News’ former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam to 21 months and 11 months in prison, respectively. They were sentenced under colonial-era sedition laws, the first time such laws have been applied to journalists since the handover in 1997. 

Mr Chung and Mr Lam have spent almost 12 months in jail already, following their arrests on 29 December 2021. Mr Lam will be released immediately due to a serious medical condition. 

Both editors pleaded not guilty to the charge of “conspiracy to publish seditious material”, an offence under colonial-era sedition laws that had, until recently, fallen into disuse in Hong Kong. They faced a maximum sentence of two years in prison and a fine of HK$5,000 (US$642) each. 

The sentencing comes only days after the first prison sentences for “doing an act with seditious intention” handed down under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance (SNSO), passed in March this year. The SNSO increases the maximum sentence for sedition from two to seven years, or 10 years if “colluding with an external force”. 

Stand News was a prominent online pro-democracy non-profit digital news outlet which ceased operations and deleted its website in December 2021 after its newsroom was raided by over 200 national security police officers. The paper has been defunct since.

Hong Kong Watch condemns this serious violation of the freedom of the press, as guaranteed by the Basic Law of Hong Kong, the Sino-British Joint Declaration, and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Hong Kong is a signatory. The core allegations of the prosecution – that Stand News had acted as a political platform to promote “illegal” ideologies and incite hatred against the Chinese and Hong Kong governments – are not in compliance with international human rights law and set a dark precedent for freedom of the press in Hong Kong.

Lord Patten of Barnes, the last Governor of Hong Kong and Patron of Hong Kong Watch, said:

“At the time of the handover in 1997, I would never have thought that Hong Kong’s archaic sedition laws would one day be used, for the first time in nearly 30 years, to prosecute journalists for doing their job. The existence of these laws is an embarrassment; their use to target journalists is an outrage. Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee should be ashamed, and the UK government should make sure it does everything in its power to secure the freedom of British citizen Jimmy Lai, also on trial in Hong Kong for the crime of conspiracy to commit journalism.”

【《立場》涉煽動案判刑】鍾沛權被判囚21個月 林紹桐刑滿當庭釋放

今天，香港法院就《立場新聞》被控「串謀發布煽動刊物」案判刑，時任總編輯鍾沛權和署任總編輯林紹桐分別被判囚21個月和11個月。兩人被指干犯殖民時代煽動法，是自1997年主權移交以來首宗傳媒被控煽動的案件。

鍾沛權和林紹桐自2021年12月29日被捕後已還押近12個月，前者即時收監，後者則因病況嚴重而獲進一步減刑，當庭釋放。

這項判刑嚴重侵犯新聞自由，香港監察予以譴責。新聞自由受到《香港基本法》、《中英聯合聲明》和香港有份簽署的《公民及政治權利國際公約》第19條保障。控方的核心指控為《立場新聞》充當宣傳「非法」意識形態並煽動讀者仇恨中國和香港政府的政治平台，這不符合國際人權法，為香港新聞自由開創了黑暗先例。

香港監察贊助人、前香港總督彭定康勳爵（Lord Patten of Barnes）表示：

「1997年主權移交時，我絕不會想到香港古舊的煽動法有一天會被用來檢控新聞工作者盡本分，這是近30年來首次發生。煽動法的存在本身已令人尷尬，用其來針對記者更令人憤慨。香港特首李家超應感到羞恥，英國政府應竭盡所能保障英國公民黎智英的自由，黎亦因『串謀從事新聞工作』罪而在香港受審。」