Hong Kong court will deliver verdict Thursday for 2 journalists accused of sedition
A Hong Kong court will deliver its verdict in a sedition case against two former editors of a shuttered news outlet on Thursday
HONG KONG — A Hong Kong court will hand down a verdict Thursday for two former editors of a shuttered news outlet in a case that is widely seen as a barometer for the future of media freedom in the city once hailed as a bastion of free press in Asia.
The delivery of the verdict has been delayed several times for reasons including awaiting the appeal outcome of another landmark sedition case.
Stand News former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam were arrested in December 2021. They pleaded not guilty to the charge of conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious publications. Their sedition trial was Hong Kong’s first involving media since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Stand News was one of the city’s last media outlets that openly criticized the government amid a crackdown on dissent that followed massive pro-democracy protests in 2019.
It was shut down just months after the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, whose jailed founder Jimmy Lai is fighting collusion charges under a sweeping national security law enacted in 2020.
Chung and Lam were charged under a colonial-era sedition law that has been used increasingly to crush dissidents. If convicted, they face up to two years in prison and a fine of 5,000 Hong Kong dollars (about $640) for a first offense.
While the hearing is set to begin at 2:30 p.m, some reporters and residents were already in queues in the morning to secure a seat in the main courtroom.
Resident Kevin Ng, who was among the first in the line, said he used to be a reader of Stand News and has been
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