Analysis: Stand News Editors Found Guilty of Sedition by Hong Kong Court
Two former top editors at now-shuttered Hong Kong independent media outlet Stand News have been found guilty of the colonial-era crime of sedition. Media watchdogs say the verdict is a major blow to the city's already-deteriorating freedom of the press.
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00:00A Hong Kong court has just ruled the two former top editors at Stand News guilty of sedition.
00:06What does this mean for the future of media in Hong Kong?
00:10So this guilty verdict is coming after more than three years of continued delays.
00:16And for us, for reporters out of borders, it's just yet another proof of the deterioration
00:21of press freedom in Hong Kong, in the territory.
00:25It is the first time, and I want to emphasize this in the history of modern Hong Kong, when
00:30the media outlet and its journalists are being prosecuted and found guilty for reporting
00:36on the facts that they've published in the course of two years, includes hard news, includes
00:42opinion articles, but also interviews with exiled activists.
00:47So this is something that is very concerning, and it's just another proof of what we've
00:52been witnessing for the past four years alone, that the press freedom has been falling apart
00:57in Hong Kong and that the authorities are starting to do anything in their power to
01:02silence any independent voices, reporters in the territory itself.
01:08Hong Kong has used other laws, including the national security law, to crack down on media
01:12in the past.
01:13What is the significance of using this sedition law?
01:17What is interesting also to mention that actually when the Stand News was raided by 200 policemen
01:22at the time, in December 2021, it was actually the national security police that was raiding
01:28the media outlet.
01:29They were the ones gathering evidence and they were the ones basically trying to frame
01:34it in a way that is also breaching national security.
01:37Then the court went with charging them only with a sedition publication, a conspiracy
01:41to publish and to disseminate the seditious publication in Hong Kong.
01:48So right now what the authorities in Hong Kong is doing, they're using any tools available
01:51right now to prosecute, to target those which are trying to go against the one narrative.
01:58For the future cases, it's giving a door, it's giving new tools to threaten journalists
02:04with sedition and it could be and is in a way the strict red line about what they can
02:10report on and what they cannot.