Chung Pui-kuen arrives at District Court in Wan Chai on September 26, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

This report was written by Han Tse and published in Hong Kong Free Press on September 26, 2024. The following edited version is published as part of a content partnership agreement.

The former chief editor of independent Hong Kong media outlet Stand News has been jailed for one year and nine months over publishing “seditious” materials, while a second editor was immediately released due to illness.

Stand News’ former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen, 55, and former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam, 36, were sentenced at Wan Chai’s District Court on September 26, 2024, after being found guilty last month of “conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious publications,” alongside the outlet’s parent company. Theirs were the first such convictions of journalists since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Despite the hearing being scheduled to begin at 2:30 pm on Thursday, it was not until almost 7 pm that District Court Judge Kwok Wai-kin handed down their sentences.

Chung was sentenced to 21 months in prison.

Kwok set 14 months as a starting point for Lam’s sentence and took three months off of the sentence because the defendant was the acting chief editor for only two months. He said he would grant a further reduction considering Lam was suffering from a serious immune system condition, so that Lam — who had already served 10 months in pre-trial detention — would not have to serve extra time in jail.

Kwok said: “I now order the immediate release of [Lam].” Lam’s wife, who was sitting in the public gallery, burst into tears upon hearing the announcement.

She was one of around a hundred people who witnessed the landmark sentencing from the public gallery and a court extension, including around a dozen former Stand News reporters and diplomats from the US, the UK, and the EU. Those who used to work at Stand News were among those in the media gallery, too, now reporting for other news outlets.

After the hearing, Chung — who spent 11 months in detention while awaiting trial — waved at his former colleagues in the courtroom, with some saying “see you later” and “take care” to their ex-chief editor.

‘Absolutely not simply journalists’

Outlining his reasons for sentencing, Kwok said the duo were “absolutely not simply journalists” during the period of the offence. “The defendants were not conducting genuine media work, but participating in the so-called resistance then.”

“Focusing on the 11 articles I ruled to be seditious, they were mostly published at a time over half of the Hong Kong society distrusted [Beijing] and [the local] government, the police, and the judiciary,” he continued.

“Such seditious articles had inevitably caused serious damage to [the authorities] and residents,” he said, adding that the news outlet had over 1.6 million followers on social media platforms.

The judge only accepted the defence contention that the overdue verdict — originally expected last October — had caused extra stress to the defendants. He set 23 months as a starting sentence for Chung and knocked two months off on that ground.

‘Rare and complex’ condition

Proceedings were briefly adjourned in the afternoon after defence lawyer Audrey Eu, representing both defendants, told the court Lam had a “rare and complex” immune system condition that had worsened since July and submitted three medical reports.

According to Eu, Lam’s doctor — Queen Mary Hospital nephrologist Daniel Chan — Lam’s kidney function had been less than 30 percent and required constant monitoring. Other doctors who contributed to the reports also said Lam’s condition had worsened rapidly and that he may soon need kidney dialysis, Eu added.

“Any mistakes or delay in treatment could endanger his life,” Eu said, urging the court to set a sentence that would not send Lam behind bars again.

11 ‘seditious’ articles

Independent news outlet Stand News was forced to shutter in December 2021 after national security police raided its newsroom and froze its assets. Chung, Lam, and the outlet were later charged with breaking the colonial-era sedition law, punishable by up to two years in jail.

During the trial, prosecutors accused the pair of running 17 allegedly seditious articles, saying they intended to incite hatred and contempt against the Hong Kong government and Beijing.

In his verdict, Kwok said 11 articles — mostly opinion pieces critical of the authorities — caused “potential detrimental consequences to national security.” Among the articles were commentaries written by self-exiled activist Nathan Law and journalism teacher Allan Au.

Kwok also wrote that Stand News “became a tool to smear and vilify the [Beijing] Authorities and the [Hong Kong] Government” during the pro-democracy protests and unrest in 2019.

Chung was responsible for publishing 10 articles in question while Lam was accountable for the remaining article, the judge said.

In a mitigation letter read aloud by his lawyer in court, Lam explained his understanding of the role of journalists in the city.

“We documented Hong Kong as much as we could, leaving a first draft of history before the people and events disappeared… The only way for journalists to defend press freedom is to report,” wrote Lam, who was absent from the verdict hearing last month due to a serious health issue.

The prosecution of Stand News sparked concerns about declining press freedoms in Hong Kong, while leader John Lee — at the time the city’s chief secretary — urged media workers to keep a distance from “evil elements” in the industry.

A new security law, known locally as Article 23, has upped the maximum penalty for sedition to up to 10 years in jail, though the new penalty did not apply to Chung and Lam’s case. However, Chung will be subject to a provision introduced by Article 23 that raises the threshold for early release of prisoners convicted under the city’s security laws. Typically, inmates are granted up to a third off their sentence for good behaviour.

Press freedom concerns

The convictions of Chung and Lam sparked condemnation from international governments and NGOs, which said they showed a decline in Hong Kong’s press freedom. Twenty-three partner countries of the Media Freedom Coalition said they were “gravely concerned” about the verdict and “the wider suppression of media freedom” in Hong Kong. Among the signatories were the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, and Ireland.

In response, the government said it “disapproved of and rejected the fact-twisting remarks and baseless smears.”

“Journalists, like everyone else, have an obligation to abide by all the laws. Their freedom of commenting on and criticising government policies remains uninhibited as long as they do not violate the law,” a government spokesperson said.