Two Hong Kong journalists will study the end result this week of their landmark sedition trial, whose verdict may set the tone for the way forward for journalism within the Chinese language metropolis.
The 2 journalists, Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, are former editors of the now-closed unbiased information outlet, Stand Information. They withstand two years in jail if discovered responsible underneath Hong Kong’s colonial-era sedition legal guidelines.
The pair had been arrested by Hong Kong’s nationwide safety police in December 2021 together with 5 different Stand Information employees and board members, together with Denise Ho, a pop singer turned outstanding pro-democracy activist, and Margaret Ng, a extensively revered former politician and barrister.
Sedition legal guidelines had been launched in Hong Kong when it was a British colony however had lain dormant till 2020 when Beijing imposed new nationwide safety legal guidelines in response to months of antigovernment protests a 12 months earlier.
Together with new crimes like “collusion with international forces” or “subversion,” prosecutors started charging Hong Kong folks with the crime of “sedition” for the primary time in additional than 50 years.
Whereas not the primary sedition trial for the reason that safety regulation triggered a political sea change, Chung and Lam’s trial can be intently watched as it’s the first to deal immediately with journalism and media, based on a Hong Kong-based observer who has adopted the case.
The observer instructed Al Jazeera that the judges of their ruling should outline what is taken into account “professional reporting” and what’s thought of “inciting hatred” towards the federal government.
“The expectation is that it’s the primary sedition trial associated to journalism, so we will anticipate that the choose would wish to attract a line between what is suitable and never acceptable journalism, particularly in the event that they certainly discover the defendants responsible,” the particular person stated, asking to not be recognized for concern {of professional} repercussions.
Prosecutors accuse Chung and Lam of conspiring to publish 17 seditious articles and op-eds that had been vital of the federal government, and that made Stand Information a “political platform” somewhat than an unbiased media outlet. The articles included information experiences about Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp and commentary from political figures residing in exile.
Through the trial, defence counsel Audrey Eu argued that not solely did Chung and Lam not write the articles in query, the prosecution had did not show how they posed “any actual threat to nationwide safety” or served as a political platform.
She stated the information outlet’s work was within the public curiosity, and its responsibility because the “Fourth Property” was to scrutinise the Hong Kong authorities with the hope it could enhance governance.
Eu additionally criticised the prosecution’s irregular conduct throughout the trial, which included counting on almost 600 new items of proof throughout their cross-examinations and shutting arguments that they didn’t submit earlier than the trial started.
Eric Lai, a analysis fellow with the Georgetown Middle for Asian Legislation, notes sedition costs have had a one hundred pc conviction price since they had been revived, He expects Chung and Lam, who’ve spent almost a 12 months in custody earlier than they had been granted bail at first of trial proceedings, can even be discovered responsible.
“I don’t anticipate a rights-respecting consequence given the intolerant development of Hong Kong courts’ rulings since 2020. They don’t respect and even steadiness the safety of elementary human rights like free speech and free expression with an overbroad nationwide safety agenda of the federal government,” Lai instructed Al Jazeera.
‘Silencing unbiased voices’
Stand Information shut down shortly after the police raided its places of work in December 2021. The outlet additionally deleted its archive on-line.
Whereas a comparatively small outlet, its swift demise reverberated past Hong Kong as the newest indication of how the town, as soon as thought to be the freest in Asia, was altering.
On the time it closed, Stand Information was one of many few pro-democracy information retailers nonetheless in operation. The favored Apple Each day tabloid had folded six months earlier after lots of of nationwide safety police raided its newsroom and arrested senior executives and founder Jimmy Lai.
The Stand Information crackdown was criticised by rights teams and a few Western authorities officers, together with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who described the outlet as “one of many few remaining bastions of free and unbiased media” in Hong Kong.
“By silencing unbiased media, [Chinese] and native authorities undermine Hong Kong’s credibility and viability. A assured authorities that’s unafraid of the reality embraces a free press,” Blinken stated on the time.
In response, then-leader Carrie Lam denied the media was being focused and stated releasing these arrested could be towards the rule of regulation.
Shortly after the raid on Stand Information, the unbiased information outlet Citizen Information additionally voluntarily shut down, citing considerations about Hong Kong’s “deteriorating media setting”. They had been adopted by 4 different unbiased information retailers, based on the media watchdog Reporters With out Borders, which screens Hong Kong’s media panorama.
Town’s press freedom rating fell from 73 out of 180 territories and nations in RSF’s 2019 annual World Press Freedom Index to 135 final 12 months, simply above South Sudan.
“As soon as a bastion of press freedom, the Hong Kong Particular Administrative Area of the Folks’s Republic of China has suffered an unprecedented sequence of setbacks since 2020, when Beijing adopted a nationwide safety regulation aimed toward silencing unbiased voices,” the media watchdog stated.
The autumn is even larger when measured towards 2002, 5 years after Hong Kong’s handover to China and the primary 12 months the index was compiled by RSF. At the moment, Hong Kong ranked quantity 18.
International media have additionally began shifting positions beforehand primarily based in Hong Kong to locations together with South Korea and Taiwan.
The native and worldwide retailers that stay have typically discovered themselves in sizzling water.
In 2022, the Hong Kong International Correspondents’ Membership scrapped its Human Rights Press Awards over fears they could “unintentionally” violate native legal guidelines amid plans to recognise Stand Information with a number of prizes.
The awards have since moved to Taiwan, together with many journalists protecting East Asia.
Final month, The Wall Road Journal fired Hong Kong reporter Selina Cheng shortly after she was elected president of the Hong Kong Journalists Affiliation, after reportedly asking Cheng to step down from the submit or lose her place.
Cheng stated the US newspaper instructed her its staff “shouldn’t be seen as advocating for press freedom in a spot like Hong Kong”.
The affiliation earlier drew the ire of Hong Kong safety chief Chris Tang for “siding” with protesters in 2019. He additionally accused the organisation of accepting funding from the US authorities.
The Journal beforehand instructed Al Jazeera that Cheng’s place was made redundant when the paper moved its Asian headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore.
In the meantime, the Hong Kong authorities has additional tightened the sedition legal guidelines, which they are saying are crucial to make sure the media doesn’t “endanger” nationwide safety.
In April, it handed a neighborhood model of the nationwide safety regulation, referred to as Article 23.
The brand new regulation provides a number of new offences, together with treason, sabotage, and espionage, and permits police to carry suspects for as much as 16 days with out cost. Sedition has additionally been added, and its scope expanded to incorporate “inciting hatred” towards the Chinese language Communist Celebration.
Most penalties have been raised from a most of two years’ imprisonment to seven years, or 10 years for circumstances involving “exterior forces” like international governments, based on Amnesty Worldwide.
Hong Kong chief John Lee stated Article 23, which a earlier administration needed to shelve after mass protests, would assist to additional safeguard the town from issues like political unrest, sabotage and international infiltration.
The federal government claimed the provisions had been just like legal guidelines handed by Australia, the UK and Singapore to deal with covert and overt international affect over their political programs.
Regina Ip, a member of the town’s pro-Beijing legislative council, wrote in an April op-ed within the native South China Morning Publish that Hong Kong had a “constitutional, authorized and ethical responsibility to safeguard nationwide safety” and had failed to take action since abandoning the laws almost 27 years earlier than.
“Offences like treason, sedition, espionage and theft of state secrets and techniques have been on our statute books for many years,” she wrote. “However many provisions are ineffective and outdated. For each constitutional and sensible causes, Hong Kong must replace current legal guidelines.”
