Hong Kong Reporter Receives 21-Month Prison Sentence in Historic Sedition Trial

September 26, 2024 TruthUSA

This marks the first prison term handed down by Hong Kong’s court in a sedition case against journalists since the city’s handover to Beijing in 1997.

The former editor of a Hong Kong news outlet was sentenced to 21 months in prison on Thursday in a landmark case that was widely seen as a sign of deteriorating media freedoms amid a years-long clampdown by China’s communist regime.

Chung Pui-kuen, former editor-in-chief of the now-shuttered pro-democracy Stand News, was convicted along with his colleague, Patrick Lam, of publishing “seditious” articles under a law dating back to the time when the city was a British colony.

Lam also received an 11-month prison term, but due to his poor health and the time he had already spent in custody, he was immediately released.

This marks the first jail term handed down by the city’s court in a sedition case against journalists or editors since Britain handed over Hong Kong to Beijing in 1997.

Chung, 54, and Lam, 36, were arrested in December 2021 and detained for more than 300 days. They were released on bail in late 2022.

Sentencing

The journalists’ lawyer, Audrey Eu, requested sentence mitigation for Lam, citing his diagnosis of a rare disease, which had led to a 70 percent decrease in his kidney function. Should Lam be sent back to prison, Eu said, it could endanger his life.

She argued that both men should be sentenced to up to the time they had already served. Lam and Chung were detained for 313 days and 349 days, respectively, before being released on bail in late 2022. Eu argued that was equivalent to serving 15 to 16 months in prison. Considering the maximum sentencing of the charge is two years imprisonment, she told the court that the defendants have already served most of their terms. If they were to be brought back to prison, she said, it would cause great burden and anxiety as they have been released on bail for nearly two years.