Hong Kong Sentences Journalists for Sedition

TaiwanPlus News

Two editors of Stand News—a now defunct Hong Kong media outlet often critical of the government—have been sentenced for sedition. The case has sent a chilling effect throughout the territory's journalists.

Transcript

00:00Journalism put on trial. A Hong Kong court sentences two former editors of

00:06Stan News, a now defunct independent news outlet, often critical of the city's

00:11government and Beijing. Patrick Lam was given 11 months but released on health

00:16grounds while Zhong Pui-kun will be put behind bars.

00:20I feel sorry for Zhong Pui-kun's sentencing. He is starting point of the

00:28imprisonment near the maximum penalty for 24 months. He had got 23 months

00:34imprisonment but luckily that he has three months deduction because the case

00:40has been last so long. They become the first journalists sentenced under a

00:45colonial era sedition law since the former British colony returned to

00:49Chinese rule in 1997. But they're just the latest victims of what many see as a

00:55persistent crackdown on freedom in Hong Kong as Beijing tightens its grip of the

00:59territory following massive pro-democracy protests in 2019.

01:26It's a dramatic fall from grace for Hong Kong. The territory ranked

01:33number 18 globally in the World Press Freedom Index in 2002 and 80 in 2021.

01:38This year it's down at 135. Now as Beijing stifles dissenting voices the

01:46courts are handing down sentences to editors and publishers like Jimmy Lai of

01:50Apple Daily and local reporters say they face intimidation in the line of work.

01:56So the main form of harassment comes from people who proclaim themselves as

02:01patriots. These people would send anonymous complaints by email or by

02:05letter to journalist family members, their family members, employers, landlords

02:13or other related organizations including charities. Hong Kong leaders have

02:17encouraged the media to tell good stories and a Beijing spokesperson

02:22recently said Hong Kong has press freedom and the Western media should

02:26stop telling one-sided stories. They want positive press that paints the

02:32government themselves in a shining light and anything that is not portraying them

02:40positively is denigrated as smears and lies and biased. The judge said 11

02:46articles published by Stan News were seditious and that the outlet had become

02:50a danger to national security. This latest sentence indicates where the

02:56government's ever-changing red lines may now lie. But activists say it also has a

03:02chilling effect on the territory's journalists.

03:05Clive Wong and Rick Lowatt for Taiwan Plus.

Category

Transcript

Recommended