Hong Kong journalists found guilty of sedition in case critics view as setback for press freedom

A Hong Kong court convicted two former news editors of a shuttered media site on Thursday for publishing seditious content, which critics regard as a setback to press freedom.

The Associated Press reported that the sedition case is the first involving members of the press in Hong Kong since 1997, when it returned to Chinese rule.

Chung Pui-kuen, former editor-in-chief of Stand News, and Patrick Lam Shiu-tung, former acting editor, were charged under a colonial-era law used in response to increasing anti-government protests that began in 2019, according to the AP.

In December 2021, the news outlet shut down after hundreds of police officers raided its office, took materials and made arrests.

Eric Lai, a research fellow at Georgetown Center for Asian Law, said the conviction follows the "anti-free-speech trend” of court rulings since a 2020 national security law went into effect in Hong Kong, the AP reported.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association said the conviction “exemplifies the decline of the city’s press freedom.”