Two Hong Kong journalists will be taught the end result this week of their landmark sedition trial, whose verdict might 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 have been arrested by Hong Kong’s nationwide safety police in December 2021 together with 5 different Stand Information workers and board members, together with Denise Ho, a pop singer turned distinguished pro-democracy activist, and Margaret Ng, a extensively revered former politician and barrister.
Sedition legal guidelines have 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 yr earlier.
Together with new crimes like “collusion with foreign forces” or “subversion,” prosecutors started charging Hong Kong individuals with the crime of “sedition” for the primary time in additional than 50 years.
Whereas not the primary sedition trial because the safety regulation triggered a political sea change, Chung and Lam’s trial might be carefully watched as it’s the first to deal immediately with journalism and media, in accordance with a Hong Kong-based observer who has adopted the case.
The observer informed Al Jazeera that the judges of their ruling must outline what is taken into account “legitimate reporting” and what’s thought-about “inciting hatred” towards the federal government.
“The expectation is that it’s the first sedition trial related to journalism, so we can expect that the judge would need to draw a line between what is acceptable and not acceptable journalism, especially if they indeed find the defendants guilty,” the individual 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 have been vital of the federal government, and that made Stand Information a “political platform” slightly than an unbiased media outlet. The articles included information experiences about Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp and commentary from political figures dwelling in exile.
In the course of the trial, defence counsel Audrey Eu argued that not solely did Chung and Lam not write the articles in query, the prosecution had didn’t show how they posed “any real risk to national security” or served as a political platform.
She stated the information outlet’s work was within the public curiosity, and its responsibility because the “Fourth Estate” was to scrutinise the Hong Kong authorities with the hope it could enhance governance.
Eu additionally criticised the prosecution’s irregular conduct in the course of 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 100% conviction charge since they have been revived, He expects Chung and Lam, who’ve spent almost a yr in custody earlier than they have been granted bail in the beginning of trial proceedings, can even be discovered responsible.
“I don’t expect a rights-respecting outcome given the illiberal trend of Hong Kong courts’ rulings since 2020. They do not appreciate and even balance the protection of fundamental human rights like free speech and free expression with an overbroad national security agenda of the government,” Lai informed Al Jazeera.
‘Silencing independent 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 town, as soon as considered the freest in Asia, was altering.
On the time it closed, Stand Information was one of many few pro-democracy information shops nonetheless in operation. The favored Apple Day by day tabloid had folded six months earlier after a whole bunch 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 the few remaining bastions of free and independent media” in Hong Kong.
“By silencing independent media, [Chinese] and local authorities undermine Hong Kong’s credibility and viability. A confident government that is unafraid of the truth 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 can be towards the rule of regulation.
Shortly after the raid on Stand Information, the unbiased information outlet Citizen Information additionally voluntarily shut down, citing issues about Hong Kong’s “deteriorating media environment”. They have been adopted by 4 different unbiased information shops, in accordance with the media watchdog Reporters With out Borders, which displays Hong Kong’s media panorama.
Town’s press freedom rating fell from 73 out of 180 territories and international locations in RSF’s 2019 annual World Press Freedom Index to 135 final yr, simply above South Sudan.
“Once a bastion of press freedom, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China has suffered an unprecedented series of setbacks since 2020, when Beijing adopted a national security law aimed at silencing independent 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 yr the index was compiled by RSF. At the moment, Hong Kong ranked quantity 18.
International media have additionally began shifting positions beforehand based mostly in Hong Kong to locations together with South Korea and Taiwan.
The native and worldwide shops 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 may “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 overlaying 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 publish or lose her place.
Cheng stated the US newspaper informed her its workers “should not be seen as advocating for press freedom in a place 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 informed 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 mandatory to make sure the media doesn’t “endanger” nationwide safety.
In April, it handed an area model of the nationwide safety regulation, often called 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 Social gathering.
Most penalties have been raised from a most of two years’ imprisonment to seven years, or 10 years for instances involving “external forces” like overseas governments, in accordance with 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 town from issues like political unrest, sabotage and overseas infiltration.
The federal government claimed the provisions have been much like legal guidelines handed by Australia, the UK and Singapore to sort out covert and overt overseas affect over their political techniques.
Regina Ip, a member of town’s pro-Beijing legislative council, wrote in an April op-ed within the native South China Morning Put up that Hong Kong had a “constitutional, legal and moral duty to safeguard national security” 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 have been on our statute books for decades,” she wrote. “But many provisions are ineffective and outdated. For both constitutional and practical reasons, Hong Kong needs to update existing laws.”
