Recently thejapantimes.co.jp reported the following:
Hong Kong editors convicted of sedition in blow to press
freedom
By Tiffany May
The New York Times – thejapantimes
Aug 30, 2024
HONG KONG – The two veterans of Hong Kong’s long boisterous
news media scene didn’t shy away from publishing pro-democracy voices on their
Stand News site, even as China cranked up its national security clampdown to
silence critics in the city.
Then the police came knocking and, more than 2½ years later,
a judge Thursday convicted the two journalists — the former editor-in-chief of
Stand News, Chung Pui-kuen, and his successor, Patrick Lam — of conspiring to
publish seditious materials on the now-defunct liberal news outlet. Both face
potential prison sentences.
The landmark ruling highlighted how far press freedom has shrunk in the city, where local news outlets already self-censor to survive and some foreign news organizations have left or moved out staff amid increasing scrutiny from authorities.
During the trial, prosecutors characterized news articles and opinion pieces published by the two as biased against the government and a threat to national security. The articles were similar to those Stand News had been publishing for years. But after authorities crushed protests that rocked the city in 2019, China imposed a national security law, and tolerance for dissent in the city’s freewheeling media began to evaporate.
The two editors have maintained their innocence. Chung said in his court testimony that they were operating within journalistic principles, to deliver stories with news value and of public interest.
In his ruling, the judge in the case, Kwok Wai-kin, wrote that it was necessary to balance freedom of speech "with the prevention of the potential damage wrought by incendiary publications.” Kwok is one of the judges hand-picked by Hong Kong’s chief executive to hear national security cases.
The two editors, who both spent almost a year in prison after their arrests, had their bail extended pending sentencing expected in late September. Lam did not attend Thursday’s hearing because of health issues, his lawyer said.
The Stand News journalists were charged in 2021 under a British colonial-era sedition law, which carries a maximum sentence of up to two years in prison. But Hong Kong’s new national security law introduced this year increased the maximum sentence for sedition to seven years — and 10, if an "external force” was involved. It replaced the sedition law.
Translation
香港 - 儘管中國加大了國家安全打壓力度，以壓制香港的批評者，但兩位長期活躍在香港新聞媒體界的資深人士並沒有迴避在他們的《立場新聞 》網站上發表支持民主的聲音。
之後警察來敲門，2.5年後，法官週四判定這兩名記者 -《立場新聞》前主編鐘沛權和他的繼任者林紹桐 - 密謀在現已停刊的自由派新聞媒體上發表煽動性材料罪名成立。兩人都可能面臨牢獄之災。
這項具有里程碑意義的裁決突顯了該市新聞自由的嚴重縮減程度，當地新聞媒體已經為了生存而進行自我審查，一些外國新聞機構在當局加強審查的情況下已經離開香港或遷出其工作人員。
在審判期間，檢察官將兩人發表的新聞文章和評論文章定性為對政府有偏見並對國家安全構成威脅。這些文章與《立場新聞 》多年來發表的文章相似。但在當局鎮壓了 2019 年震撼該市的抗議活動後，中國實施了國家安全法，該市對自由運作的媒體的異議的容忍開始消失。
兩位編輯堅稱自己是清白的。鐘在法庭證詞中表示，他們依照新聞原則運作，提供具有新聞價值和公眾利益的故事。
該案法官郭偉健在裁決中寫道，有必要「平衡言論自由與防止煽動性出版物造成的潛在損害」。郭是香港行政長官親自挑選審理國家安全案件的法官之一。
這兩名編輯被捕後都在監獄裡度過了近一年的時間，他們的保釋期延長了至九月下旬以等待預計中的判決。林紹桐的律師表示，林因健康問題未出席週四的聽證會。
《立場新聞》記者於 2021 年受到指控, 是根據英國殖民時代的煽動叛亂法作出，最高可判處兩年監禁。但香港今年推出的新國家安全法將煽動叛亂罪的最高刑期提高至七年，如果涉及“外部勢力”，則最高刑期為十年。它取代了煽動叛亂法。
So, the Stand News journalists were charged in
2021 under a British colonial-era sedition law. In Hong Kong, after the authorities
crushed protests that rocked the city in 2019, a national security law has been
imposed, and tolerance for dissent in the city’s freewheeling media has gone. I
am interested in knowing the outcome of this case as the ruling will highlight how far press
freedom has shrunk in Hong Kong since 1997.
沒有留言:
張貼留言