Taipei, September 2, 2024—Hong Kong authorities are criminalizing normal journalistic work with the “openly political” conviction of two editors from the shuttered news portal Stand News for subversion, the Committee to Protect Journalists and four other rights groups said.
By weaponizing the legal system against journalists, China has ruthlessly reneged on guarantees given to Hong Kong, which should enjoy a high degree of autonomy after the former British colony was handed back to Beijing in 1997, the groups said in a joint statement.
Former Stand News editors Patrick Lam and Chung Pui-kuen are due to be sentenced on September 26 and could be jailed for two years.
“We now await with trepidation the outcome of trials targeting senior staff from the defunct Apple Daily newspaper, especially its founder Jimmy Lai who faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars,” they added.
Read the full statement here.
