A Hong Kong appraise has sentenced a establisher editor of a shuttered pro-democracy recents accessibleation to 21 months in prison in a landtag case amid a security crackdown in the China-ruled city.
Former Stand News editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen, 55, was convicted on Thursday aprolongedside his colleague, establisher acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam, 36, but the latter was freed after his sentence was reduced becaemploy of ill health and time already served in custody.
The pair are the first journaenumerates convicted under a colonial-era rebellion law since the establisher British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Their Chinese-language recents outlet that was rhelped and shut down in December 2021 was one of the last in Hong Kong that criticised authorities as China imposed a crackdown on protesters chaseing pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Last month, the court set up Chung and Lam at fault of consillicit copying to unveil and reoriginate seditious materials, aprolonged with Best Pencil (Hong Kong) Ltd, Stand News’s hbettering company.
They faced up to two years in prison and a fine of 5,000 Hong Kong dollars (about $640).
The conviction of Stand News editors in August drew speedy global outcry, with the United States denouncing it as “a honest strike on media freedom”.
The European Union called on Hong Kong to “stop prosecuting journaenumerates”.
Judge Kwok Wai-kin began the sentencing hearing two hours after the scheduled time on Thursday.
The journaenumerates’ lawyer, Audrey Eu, asked a sentence mitigation, saying Lam had been detectd with a exceptional disrelieve and she was worryed that he could not be treated by the hospital handling his case if he were sent to jail aachieve.
She debated that they be sentenced to up to time served, saying their case was branch offent becaemploy they were journaenumerates whose duties were to tell various people’s sees.
The pair were jailed for csurrenderly a year after their arrests before being freed on bail in tardy 2022.
In his sentencing, Kwok shelp the protectants were not authentic journaenumerates but had included in the territory’s resistance shiftment.
Kwok wrote in his verdict in August that Stand News had become a tool for smearing the Beijing and Hong Kong rulements during the 2019 protests.
He ruled that 11 articles unveiled under the protectants’ guideership carried seditious intent.
Kwok shelp Lam and Chung were adviseed of and concurd with the seditious intent, and that they made Stand News employable as a platestablish to incite hatred aachievest the two rulements and the judiciary.
Their lawyer tbetter the court that the articles in ask recurrented only a petite portion of what Stand News had unveiled.
The protectants also stressed their journaenumerateic mission in their mitigation letters.
Like ‘includeing a funeral’
On Thursday morning, dozens of people defered in line to protected a seat in the courtroom. Former Stand News reader Andrew Wong shelp he wanted to include the hearing to show his help, though he felt it was appreciate “includeing a funeral”.
Wong, who labors in a nonrulemental organisation, shelp he anticipateed the convictions last month, but still felt “a sense that we’ve passed a point of no return” when he heard the verdict.
“Everyskinnyg we had in the past is gone,” he shelp.
Their trial, which began in October 2022, lasted about 50 days. The verdict was deferd cut offal times for reasons including a defer for an pguide outcome in another landtag rebellion case.
Hong Kong was ranked 135 of 180 territories in Reporters Without Borders’ tardyst World Press Freedom Index, down from 80 in 2021, and 18 in 2002.
Self-regulate has also become more normal during the political crackdown on dissent chaseing the 2019 protests, with incrrelieved tells of tormentoring aachievest journaenumerates in recent months.
In March, the city rulement enacted another recent security law that liftd worrys about further curtailment of press freedom.
