A Hong Kong judge sentenced former Stand News editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen to 21 months in prison and his successor, Patrick Lam, to the time he had already served, due to Lam’s poor health. The two were found guilty of breaking a colonial-era sedition law last month in a landmark case that marked the first time journalists had been convicted under the law since the city was transferred to Chinese control. (New York Times)
Our Take
The verdict and sentencing in this case in many ways mark a coda to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, which gained international attention with massive protests in 2019. Activists tried to protect the city’s exceptionalism under the “one state, two system” policy that was put in place after its sovereignty was returned to Beijing in 1997.
Around that time and amid a broader crackdown on civil liberties and political freedoms, mainstream media were brought under varying degrees of government control. Stand News was one of the last independent media outlets in Hong Kong to continue openly criticizing the government. Then, in late 2021, its offices were raided, Chung and Lam were arrested and days later Stand News ceased operations. Similar outlets, namely Apple Daily and Citizen News, suffered the same fate.