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.
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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.