Hong Kong editors who face prison in sedition case told court about journalistic ideals
Two former top editors of Hong Kong’s defunct online media Stand News will learn their sentences Thursday after a landmark sedition verdict
HONG KONG (AP) — Writing to the Hong Kong court that convicted him of sedition, former Stand News editor Patrick Lam said he regretted missing a chance to tell a police officer about independent journalism.
Lam and his ex-colleague Chung Pui-kuen, both former top editors of the now-shuttered Stand News, will learn their sentences Thursday after being found guilty last month in a landmark case widely seen as a barometer of media freedom in Hong Kong.
They were the first journalists to be convicted of sedition since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. They face up to two years in prison and a fine of 5,000 Hong Kong dollars (about $640) under a colonial-era sedition law that has been increasingly used to crush dissent.
Stand News was one of the last media outlets in the city that openly criticized the government as the authorities waged a crackdown on dissent following huge anti-government protests in 2019.
