The former editor-in-chief of Stand News, Chung Pui-kuen, and Patrick Lam, his successor at the pro-democracy news site, were both convicted of sedition in Hong Kong as the authorities continue to restrict the free press, per recent reports.
"We didn’t have a hidden agenda, or any other goals that you couldn’t see," Chung said in his trial last year, according to The New York Times. "We saw very important events with a lot of public interest; we only wanted to document them."
Hong Kong was placed under a national security law in the years following the 2019 protest movement as Beijing began to crack down on pro-democracy voices throughout China. The Safeguarding National Security Bill, passed in March, offers punishments for treason and insurrection with life imprisonment and allows for punishment for possession of treasonous publications with time in prison.
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"He was steadfast to his ideals," Stand News former editor Lam Yin-pong told The Times. "He has the most backbone. His sacrifice is very extreme."
"The verdict could impose an additional chilling effect on the local media industry that has been exercising self-censorship heavily since 2020," Prof. Eric Lai at Georgetown Center for Asian Law told the outlet.
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Chung emphasized his support for freedom of speech and for the free press during his testimony.
"To me, freedom of speech is close to a kind of faith," Chung said during his trial.
One of Chung's former colleagues, Lam Yin-pong, rejected claims that the paper was biased in favor of a particular agenda.
"We didn’t try to serve anyone in particular, or to say what is right," he said. "To call this a conspiracy is a joke."
In May, 14 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong were also convicted in a national security case.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
