Hong Kong Court Finds Jounalists Guilty of Sedition
A Court in Hong Kong has found two journalists guilty of sedition.
The two journalists, Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam were editors at the now-defunct Stand News media outlet, a pro-democracy newspaper.
Chung and Lam charged under the country’s colonial-era sedition law, may face up to two years in prison and a fine of 5,000 Hong Kong dollars (about $640) for a first offense.
In a written statement, district court judge Kwok Wai-kin said that Stand News had become a “danger to national security, Their newspaper’s editorial line supported Hong Kong local autonomy”
“It even became a tool to smear and vilify the Central Authorities [in Beijing] and the [Hong Kong] SAR Government,” he said in a written judgement.
This is the first sedition case against journalists in Hong Kong since the territory’s handover from Britain to China in 1997.
Rights groups have condemned the verdict calling on Hong Kong to stop its nefarious campaign against press freedom
