By Jessie Pang and James Pomfret
HONG KONG (Reuters) -A Hong Kong courtroom on Thursday discovered two editors of the now-defunct Stand Information media outlet responsible of conspiring to publish seditious articles in a case that has drawn worldwide scrutiny amid a safety crackdown within the China-ruled metropolis.
The 2 editors, Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, may face a most jail time period of two years. That is the primary sedition conviction towards any journalist or editor since Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China in 1997.
It’s a case that critics, together with the U.S. authorities, say displays deteriorating media freedoms underneath a years-long nationwide safety crackdown within the China-ruled metropolis.
Stand Information, as soon as Hong Kong’s main on-line media with a mixture of essential reportage and commentary, was raided by police in December 2021 and had its belongings frozen, resulting in its closure just a few days later.
Chung, 54, Lam, 36, and the outlet’s father or mother firm Greatest Pencil (Hong Kong) Ltd have been all charged with conspiracy to publish seditious publications in reference to 17 information articles and commentaries between July 2020 and December 2021.
Chung and Lam had pleaded not responsible, with solely Chung current in courtroom on Thursday for the decision. Lam’s absence wasn’t defined.
District Court docket Choose Kwok Wai-kin wrote in a abstract of the judgement that in making a ruling on seditious intent, the courtroom had thought-about “the potential danger to national security” and the precise scenario on the time.