'Journalists’ conviction bodes ill for press freedom in Hong Kong', Benedict Rogers
At least 10 journalists are currently in jail, while 28 have been prosecuted under the security law alone in past four years
Journalism is not a crime. Or at least, it should not be. But in Hong Kong now, it appears to be.
Last week’s conviction of two editors of the now defunct pro-democracy media outlet Stand News on charges of sedition represents the latest nail in the coffin of press freedom in Hong Kong.
Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam are the first journalists to be convicted of sedition since the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997. Sentencing is expected towards the end of this month, and they likely face up to two years in jail and a HK$5,000 ($641.25) fine.
Both editors have already spent over 300 days in pre-trial custody, following their arrest alongside five other Stand News affiliates in December 2021, including the well-known singer Denise Ho and barrister Margaret Ng.
The closing arguments were delivered in court over a year ago, but the trial — which had been expected to last 20 days — went on for more than 50 days. The verdict was delayed three times and has now been issued almost a year late.
Chung and Lam were accused of conspiracy to publish 17 articles deemed by the prosecution to be seditious, between July 2020 and December 2021. These allegedly seditious articles include profiles of pro-democracy candidates, a feature interview with former pro-democracy legislator Ted Hui, and opinion editorials by activists and journalists about Beijing’s imposition of the draconian National Security Law in 2020.
Chung told the court earlier in the trial that he never imagined that journalism could be deemed to be sedition, and warned that the government’s “suppression of critical voices or opinions will cause hatred more easily” than the comment itself.
“I believe that if Hong Kong truly upholds the space for free speech granted by the Basic Law and Bill of Rights, these articles are fine to publish,” he said.
Stand News, which had been one of Hong Kong’s last significant independent, Chinese-language media outlets, was forcibly closed in December 2021 after more than 200 national security police officers raided the newsroom and made six arrests.
Its closure followed similar police raids on Apple Daily, which was forcibly closed in June 2021. Jimmy Lai, Apple Daily’s founder and a devout Catholic and British citizen, has been in prison since December 2020 on multiple trumped-up charges and is currently on trial under the National Security Law.
According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), at least 10 journalists are currently in jail in Hong Kong, while 28 have been prosecuted under the National Security Law alone in the past four years.
Over 900 jobs in journalism have been lost since the imposition of the National Security Law, at least three foreign freelance journalists have been barred from entering the territory and many Hong Kong journalists have gone into exile.
Press freedom groups such as the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) face increasing harassment, with its newly elected chair Selina Cheng being fired from The Wall Street Journal in July.
This year alone, the Hong Kong authorities have reportedly sent at least seven letters accusing foreign media outlets, including the BBC, RFA, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Bloomberg, of publishing “misleading” articles about the newly-enacted “Article 23” national security provisions.
Both editors have already spent over 300 days in pre-trial custody, following their arrest alongside five other Stand News affiliates in December 2021, including the well-known singer Denise Ho and barrister Margaret Ng.
The closing arguments were delivered in court over a year ago, but the trial — which had been expected to last 20 days — went on for more than 50 days. The verdict was delayed three times and has now been issued almost a year late.
Chung and Lam were accused of conspiracy to publish 17 articles deemed by the prosecution to be seditious, between July 2020 and December 2021. These allegedly seditious articles include profiles of pro-democracy candidates, a feature interview with former pro-democracy legislator Ted Hui, and opinion editorials by activists and journalists about Beijing’s imposition of the draconian National Security Law in 2020.
Chung told the court earlier in the trial that he never imagined that journalism could be deemed to be sedition, and warned that the government’s “suppression of critical voices or opinions will cause hatred more easily” than the comment itself.
“I believe that if Hong Kong truly upholds the space for free speech granted by the Basic Law and Bill of Rights, these articles are fine to publish,” he said.
Stand News, which had been one of Hong Kong’s last significant independent, Chinese-language media outlets, was forcibly closed in December 2021 after more than 200 national security police officers raided the newsroom and made six arrests.
Its closure followed similar police raids on Apple Daily, which was forcibly closed in June 2021. Jimmy Lai, Apple Daily’s founder and a devout Catholic and British citizen, has been in prison since December 2020 on multiple trumped-up charges and is currently on trial under the National Security Law.
According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), at least 10 journalists are currently in jail in Hong Kong, while 28 have been prosecuted under the National Security Law alone in the past four years.
Over 900 jobs in journalism have been lost since the imposition of the National Security Law, at least three foreign freelance journalists have been barred from entering the territory and many Hong Kong journalists have gone into exile.
Press freedom groups such as the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) face increasing harassment, with its newly elected chair Selina Cheng being fired from The Wall Street Journal in July.
This year alone, the Hong Kong authorities have reportedly sent at least seven letters accusing foreign media outlets, including the BBC, RFA, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Bloomberg, of publishing “misleading” articles about the newly-enacted “Article 23” national security provisions.
Hong Kong is ranked 135 out of 180 in RSF’s Press Freedom Index, plummeting from 18th in the world two decades ago.
A Hong Kong government spokesman said the convictions in the Stand News trial signify “justice being firmly upheld” and warned that “any individual or organization that incites hatred and engages in acts and activities endangering national security can never escape sanctions of the law.”
The ideology of Stand News, he argued, was “localism which excluded China” and it became “a tool to smear and vilify” the regime in Beijing and the Hong Kong government.
He said the Hong Kong government “strongly demands the US and some Western countries, anti-China organizations, anti-China politicians, and foreign media immediately cease their malicious attacks and smear campaigns against Hong Kong's freedom of the press."
The last British governor, Chris Patten, who helped prepare Hong Kong for the 1997 handover and is a patron of Hong Kong Watch, described the verdict as “a dark day for press freedom in Hong Kong.”
He said Chung and Lam “have been found guilty for simply doing their jobs as journalists” and argued that “the baseless allegations and verdict of this trial mark a further sinister turn for media freedom in Hong Kong, as it is clear that political commentary and opinion pieces may violate national security.”
Patten urged the international community to “continue to closely monitor the freedom of the press in Hong Kong,” and called on international lawmakers to “consider punitive measures to pressure the Hong Kong authorities to recommit upholding the Basic Law and Sino-British Joint Declaration which guarantee the observance of free press, including by imposing targeted sanctions on Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee.”
Lawmakers “should also call for the immediate and unconditional release of all Hong Kong journalists in jail, including British citizen Jimmy Lai,” he added.
Patten is right. The regime in Beijing and its quisling puppet government in Hong Kong have torn up the promises made in the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a treaty registered at the United Nations, and shredded the freedoms enshrined in Hong Kong’s mini-constitution known as the Basic Law. They must be held accountable for these broken promises and subjected to intense pressure to change course.
As a former journalist myself, press freedom is of particular concern to me. I began my career as a journalist in Hong Kong in 1997, two months after the handover, at a time when Hong Kong’s media was vibrant, dynamic, and free. So, the plight of Chung and Lam is one I feel especially strongly about.
In 2022, I wrote a report titled In the Firing Line: The Crackdown on Media Freedom in Hong Kong, which concluded that the state of press freedom in the city was “dire.” It has only deteriorated further since then, as their conviction exemplifies.
Governments around the world must speak up. So too should journalists and press freedom groups. If the hashtag #JournalismIsNotACrime — so widely used on occasions such as World Press Freedom Day — is to mean anything, it should mobilize many voices to demand the immediate release of all jailed journalists in Hong Kong, including Jimmy Lai, and the reversal of the conviction of the Stand News editors.
We must not allow Beijing to continue to treat journalism in Hong Kong as a crime.
This article was published in UCA News on 2 September 2024.