A Hong Kong appraise has sentenced a createer editor of a shuttered pro-democracy recents accessibleation to 21 months in prison in a landtag case amid a security crackdown in the China-ruled city.
Former Stand News editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen, 55, was convicted on Thursday aextfinishedside his colleague, createer acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam, 36, but the latter was freed after his sentence was shrinkd because of ill health and time already served in custody.
The pair are the first journacatalogs convicted under a colonial-era incitement law since the createer British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Their Chinese-language recents outlet that was rhelped and shut down in December 2021 was one of the last in Hong Kong that criticised authorities as China imposed a crackdown on opponents chaseing pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Last month, the court set up Chung and Lam at fault of consunpermitd use to begin and recreate seditious materials, aextfinished with Best Pencil (Hong Kong) Ltd, Stand News’s hgreatering company.
They faced up to two years in prison and a fine of 5,000 Hong Kong dollars (about $640).
The conviction of Stand News editors in August drew speedy global outcry, with the United States denouncing it as “a straightforward strike on media freedom”.
The European Union called on Hong Kong to “stop prosecuting journacatalogs”.
Judge Kwok Wai-kin began the sentencing hearing two hours after the scheduled time on Thursday.
The journacatalogs’ lawyer, Audrey Eu, seeked a sentence mitigation, saying Lam had been recognized with a exceptional disrelieve and she was troubleed that he could not be treated by the hospital handling his case if he were sent to jail aget.
She argued that they be sentenced to up to time served, saying their case was contrastent because they were journacatalogs whose duties were to alert various people’s sees.
The pair were incarcerateed for cforfeitly a year after their arrests before being freed on bail in tardy 2022.
In his sentencing, Kwok shelp the deffinishants were not authentic journacatalogs but had take partd in the territory’s resistance transferment.
Kwok wrote in his verdict in August that Stand News had become a tool for smearing the Beijing and Hong Kong handlements during the 2019 protests.
He ruled that 11 articles begined under the deffinishants’ directership carried seditious intent.
Kwok shelp Lam and Chung were conscious of and concurd with the seditious intent, and that they made Stand News useable as a platcreate to incite hatred agetst the two handlements and the judiciary.
Their lawyer tgreater the court that the articles in ask recontransiented only a petite portion of what Stand News had begined.
The deffinishants also stressed their journacatalogic mission in their mitigation letters.
Like ‘take parting a funeral’
On Thursday morning, dozens of people postponeed in line to shielded a seat in the courtroom. Former Stand News reader Andrew Wong shelp he wanted to take part the hearing to show his aid, though he felt it was enjoy “take parting a funeral”.
Wong, who toils in a nonhandlemental organisation, shelp he awaited the convictions last month, but still felt “a sense that we’ve passed a point of no return” when he heard the verdict.
“Everyleang we had in the past is gone,” he shelp.
Their trial, which began in October 2022, lasted about 50 days. The verdict was postponed disjoinal times for reasons including a postpone for an request outcome in another landtag incitement case.
Hong Kong was ranked 135 of 180 territories in Reporters Without Borders’ tardyst World Press Freedom Index, down from 80 in 2021, and 18 in 2002.
Self-restriction has also become more standard during the political crackdown on dissent chaseing the 2019 protests, with incrrelieved alerts of intimidatoring agetst journacatalogs in recent months.
In March, the city handlement enacted another recent security law that liftd troubles about further curtailment of press freedom.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23904518/VRG_Illo_K_Radtke_STK070_Instagram_1.jpg?w=600&resize=600,600&ssl=1 "Instagram’s novel profile cards originate it more fun to allot your account")
