Two Hong Kong journalists will be taught the 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 impartial 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 outstanding 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 12 months earlier.
Together with new crimes like “collusion with overseas 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 legislation triggered a political sea change, Chung and Lam’s trial will probably be intently watched as it’s the first to deal immediately with journalism and media, in keeping with a Hong Kong-based observer who has adopted the case.
The observer informed Al Jazeera that the judges of their ruling should outline what is taken into account “official 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 are able to count on that the decide 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 mentioned, 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 essential of the federal government, and that made Stand Information a “political platform” slightly than an impartial media outlet. The articles included information studies about Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp and commentary from political figures dwelling in exile.
Throughout 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 actual threat to nationwide safety” or served as a political platform.
She mentioned 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 will enhance governance.
Eu additionally criticised the prosecution’s irregular conduct in the course of the trial, which included counting on practically 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 expenses have had a one hundred pc conviction charge since they have been revived, He expects Chung and Lam, who’ve spent practically a 12 months in custody earlier than they have been granted bail firstly of trial proceedings, will even be discovered responsible.
“I don’t count on a rights-respecting consequence given the intolerant development of Hong Kong courts’ rulings since 2020. They don’t recognize and even steadiness the safety of basic human rights like free speech and free expression with an overbroad nationwide safety agenda of the federal government,” Lai informed Al Jazeera.
‘Silencing impartial voices’
Stand News shut down shortly after the police raided its workplaces 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 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 Daily 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 impartial media” in Hong Kong.
“By silencing impartial 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 mentioned on the time.
In response, then-leader Carrie Lam denied the media was being focused and mentioned releasing these arrested could be towards the rule of legislation.
Shortly after the raid on Stand Information, the impartial information outlet Citizen Information additionally voluntarily shut down, citing issues about Hong Kong’s “deteriorating media setting”. They have been adopted by 4 different impartial information shops, in keeping with 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 collection of setbacks since 2020, when Beijing adopted a nationwide safety legislation geared toward silencing impartial voices,” the media watchdog mentioned.
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 moving positions beforehand primarily based 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 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 Avenue 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 mentioned the US newspaper informed her its workers “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 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 essential to make sure the media doesn’t “endanger” nationwide safety.
In April, it handed an area model of the nationwide safety legislation, often called Article 23.
The brand new legislation 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 Occasion.
Most penalties have been raised from a most of two years’ imprisonment to seven years, or 10 years for circumstances involving “exterior forces” like overseas governments, in keeping with Amnesty Worldwide.
Hong Kong chief John Lee mentioned 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 overseas infiltration.
The federal government claimed the provisions have been much like legal guidelines handed by Australia, the UK and Singapore to deal with covert and overt overseas 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 Submit that Hong Kong had a “constitutional, authorized and ethical responsibility to safeguard nationwide safety” and had failed to take action since abandoning the laws practically 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.”