Hong Kong journalists convicted of sedition face prison

A District Court in Hong Kong on Thursday convicted Chung Pui-kuen and Lam Shiu-tung of seeking to publish and reproduce seditious material. The two journalists served as editors for the now out-of-service news website Stand News. They face a maximum sentence of two years in prison. Stand News is the first Chinese newspaper accused of sedition in roughly 70 years, according to the pro-Chinese government outlet the South China Morning Post.

The European Union on Thursday criticized the convictions, saying it highlighted the Chinese government’s oppression of freedom of speech and the press in Hong Kong. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian did not address the convictions in translated remarks on Thursday.

Weren’t there a bunch of convictions in Hong Kong earlier this year? Earlier this year a Hong Kong court convicted 14 defendants and acquitted two others of trying to subvert the Chinese government. The defendants engaged in subversion by holding an unofficial primary election before a legislative council election in 2020, the Chinese court decided. The primary election was meant to determine who would be willing to block budget proposals in the legislature. The 16 defendants who pleaded not guilty and dozens more who pleaded guilty were charged with violating a new Hong Kong National Security Law intended to stifle dissent, international critics said.

Dig deeper: Read Erica Kwong’s report in World Tour about how China is trying to erase memories of the Tiananmen Square massacre in Hong Kong.