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Shuttered Hong Kong news outlet's editors charged with sedition
Two senior editors of Hong Kong pro-democracy media outlet were charged with sedition and denied bail Thursday, following a raid that drew international condemnation over China's crackdown on press freedom in the city.
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Pro-democracy activist and singer Denise Ho (C), a former board member of Stand News, leaves the Western Police Station after being released from custody in Hong Kong on December 30, 2021, following her arrest the previous day along with six other current and former staff members of the local media outlet under a British colonial-era law for 'conspiracy to publish seditious publication'. (AFP/Bertha Wang)
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wo senior editors of Hong Kong pro-democracy media outlet Stand News were charged with sedition and denied bail Thursday, following a raid that drew international condemnation over China's crackdown on press freedom in the city.
China has tightened its control of Hong Kong since massive and often violent pro-democracy protests engulfed the financial hub in 2019, using a sweeping national security law to clamp down on dissent.
On Wednesday, police stormed into the Stand News office, seizing phones, computers, documents and thousands of dollars.
Acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam and former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen were arrested along with five others.
On Thursday, along with Stand News' parent company, Lam and Chung were charged with conspiring "together and with other persons, to publish and/or reproduce seditious publications", according to court documents.
Among the violations listed on the charge sheet were the promotion of "hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection" against the government and the incitement of "persons to violence".
The arrests were an "act of justice", a spokesperson for the Chinese government's liaison office in Hong Kong said in a statement, accusing Stand News of inciting secession.
