Press Freedom in the Shadow of the Standing Press Case

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Article/Blessing CALD Editorial；Photo/Internet

The implementation of the National Security Law in 2020 poses an unprecedented threat to press freedom in Hong Kong, causing many media outlets to cease operation or withdraw from Hong Kong. Following the conviction of the first offence of media sedition in Hong Kong in the ‘Standing News’ case, the Hong Kong newspaper ‘Epoch Times’ recently announced that it will publish its last issue on the 17th Mid-Autumn Festival. One cannot help but ask: Is there still freedom of the press in Hong Kong?

Two editors convicted of sedition
At the end of last month, a Hong Kong court ruled that two editors of the defunct Stand News – former Editor-in-Chief Chung Pui-kuen, then Acting Editor-in-Chief Lam Siu-tung, and Stand News’ parent company Best Pencil – were guilty of conspiracy to publish or reproduce seditious publications. The former editor-in-chief, Chung Pui-kuen, and the then acting editor-in-chief, Lam Siu-tung, as well as Best Pencil, the parent company of The Position, were convicted of conspiracy to publish or reproduce seditious publications. The news has attracted widespread concern and condemnation from the international community. This is the first time since the handover of Hong Kong’s sovereignty to China in 1997 that a journalist or editor has been convicted of sedition. Both Chung Pui Kuen and Lam Siu Tong pleaded not guilty.

The case involved 17 news articles and commentaries published by the Standing News between July 2020 and December 2021, of which 11 were found by the court to have been published with seditious intent. The court found that the seditious articles included commentaries written by exiled activists Law Koon-chung and Cheung Kun-yang, veteran journalist Au Ka-lun, and former Apple Daily deputy publisher and wife of Chung Pui-kuen, Chan Pui-mun, who is now in prison. 29 December 2021, the Hong Kong National Security Agency arrested seven people associated with Standing Room News, and on the same day, prosecuted the parent company of Standing Room News for conspiracy to publish seditious publications, On the same day, the parent company of The Stand, former editor-in-chief Chung Pui Kuen and then acting editor-in-chief Lam Siu Tung were charged with conspiracy to publish sedition. The trial commenced in October 2022 and lasted 57 days. The verdict was originally scheduled for 4 October last year, but was finally handed down a few days ago after three adjournments.

The prosecutor, Ng Suk-kuen, said the newspaper had acted as a political platform to promote an illegal ideology and incited readers to hate the Chinese and Hong Kong governments. However, Chung insisted that Position News only recorded facts and reported the truth, and only wanted to reflect various voices, including those of pro-democracy advocates. Chung stressed that the newspaper adhered to the principle of publishing every article it received in order to demonstrate freedom of speech to the fullest extent possible, as long as the articles did not incite violence, adversely affect the public or cause defamation. After the judgement was delivered, the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) said that the outcome of the trial of this case demonstrated the decline of press freedom in Hong Kong, and that the damage caused to the Hong Kong press and media companies was irreversible.

Chilling effect continues to worsen
In an annual survey released by the Hong Kong Journalists Association and the Hong Kong Institute of Public Opinion in August this year, Hong Kong journalists’ rating of press freedom dropped to a record low of 25 points, another 0.7 points lower than last year, and a 17-point drop from the start of the 2013 survey, and the fifth consecutive year of decline since 2019. A major reason is the industry’s concern that the legislation of Article 23 of the Basic Law poses a threat to journalists. Press freedom in Hong Kong has also been a subject of international concern in recent years. A report on Hong Kong released by the European Union in August last year said that press freedom in Hong Kong had declined significantly by 2022, with journalists being arrested and charged. In addition, many of Hong Kong’s independent media have ceased operations. The judgement in the Standpoint News case and the closure of Hong Kong Epoch Times are testament to the uneasiness of this eventful year.

Standing News, one of the last media outlets in Hong Kong to openly criticise the government, was shut down a few months after the pro-democracy Apple Daily was closed down, and its founder, Lai Chi-ying, was charged with conspiracy. The print edition of the Hong Kong Epoch Times, which has accompanied Hong Kong people for 23 years, has recently announced the end of an era. Epoch Times has been in Hong Kong for a long time, and their stance has never changed, with a clear anti-communist flag, and today’s ending can be regarded as consistent. This result was unexpected and reasonable. After all, since the promulgation of the Hong Kong National Security Law, expressing ideas different from those of the government has slowly been regarded as a kind of defamation of the government, and it is obvious that the government is setting a red line.

In recent years, the Hong Kong government has used all of its resources to make independently-run media and publishing houses feel a strong ‘force majeure’. Apple Daily, Standing News, Public News, and Fax have all ceased operation, and The Wall Street Journal and Radio Free Asia have withdrawn from Hong Kong. The conviction of journalists or editors for sedition has undoubtedly set a dangerous precedent, dealing another blow to the shattered freedom of the press in Hong Kong and driving another nail into the coffin of freedom of the press in Hong Kong. It is foreseeable that journalists working in Hong Kong will certainly exercise self-censorship and think twice before they act, further aggravating the atmosphere of fear in Hong Kong. What an irony that Hong Kong, once renowned for its thriving press industry, now has journalists thrown in jail just for doing their job.

Press freedom in name only
The implementation of Hong Kong’s new security laws has created some uncertainty about how existing political cases will be handled. A reporter for Scene News was prosecuted in 2021 under the British colonial sedition law, which carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison. But Hong Kong’s new national security law, introduced this year, raises the maximum sentence for sedition to seven years, or 10 years if an outside force is involved. The law replaces the original sedition law. In another national security-related case, the Hong Kong courts applied the new, harsher penalties retroactively. It is not clear whether this will happen with the court’s judgement on the two editors.

Now the incident continues to attract international attention, with US Secretary of State Abraham Lincoln urging the HKSAR authorities to release the arrested persons. The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR, Mrs Carrie Lam, criticised the comments made by Western officials for trampling on the rule of law, and the Office of the Foreign Ministry of the People’s Republic of China in Hong Kong claimed that no demons or sprites could stop the historical momentum of Hong Kong’s struggle to restore order and stability. In fact, Hong Kong’s freedom of the press has long shown signs of turning back: According to an index compiled by the Reporters Without Borders, Hong Kong’s ranking in terms of freedom of the press has dropped to 135th among 180 countries and regions. In April this year, a representative of the organisation was denied entry to Hong Kong during a fact-finding mission. The US-funded news service Free Asia Radio also announced in March that it had closed its office in Hong Kong after the government promulgated a new national security law targeting so-called foreign interference. It seems that it is no longer possible for Hong Kong to ask the Government to uphold freedom and democracy.

Why is freedom of speech banned? George WASHINGTON, the Founding Father of the United States, offered three explanations: first, it has done something bad in the past and people are afraid to mention it; second, it is doing something bad and people are afraid to criticise it; and third, it is planning to do something bad and people are afraid to expose it. All in all, banning the freedom of speech is definitely related to bad things, and it is definitely not a good thing. That is why the United States has been able to gradually become a beacon of democracy in the world over the past two centuries, while Hong Kong today is a proper counterexample: any ban on freedom of speech implies that the authorities do not want to be mentioned, criticised or exposed. After all, a government that is confident and unafraid of the truth will embrace a free media.

Taking a New Direction
In such a harsh and censorious environment, there are a few Hong Kong-originated media outlets that have tried to pursue freedom of the press within the narrow confines. 2021 saw Hong Kong 01 absorb a large number of pro-democratic media outlets, such as Apple Daily and Standing News, after they closed down, and as a result, some readers felt that it was becoming more localised in its approach, and that there was a higher chance of focusing on negative stories about Mainland China. Some readers believe that its approach is becoming more localised, and that news involving Mainland China is more likely to focus on negative stories. Although Hong Kong’s paid online media, Tuan Media, which specialises in in-depth reporting, moved its headquarters to Singapore three years ago, making it the first online media outlet to move its headquarters out of Hong Kong under the National Security Law, in order to cope with the increasingly difficult road to freedom of the press, it still focuses on Hong Kong’s local news. In the face of press upheaval, the question of whether to stay or go has become the biggest question in the minds of many Hong Kong journalists, some of whom are forging a third way – a different way of moving forward independently in the wake of the changes in Hong Kong in 2019. The proliferation of independent media platforms on the Internet is perhaps proof that Hong Kong people, whose prospects for freedom of the press have dimmed, are taking a more roundabout approach in their fight against the authorities for the democracy and freedoms that citizens are supposed to enjoy.

There are also opinion leaders who have left Hong Kong and have created videos in democratic countries that focus on current affairs in Hong Kong, and there are also media workers who have set up websites focusing on Hong Kong news and information, in an attempt to keep information about Hong Kong in the minds of Hong Kong people. However, it is questionable as to how these online media obtain news about Hong Kong, and whether their commentaries have any influence on those who still stay in Hong Kong today. Judging from the current development, these media can only get the attention of overseas Hong Kong people, but less able to influence those who are still living in Hong Kong.

Of course, the existence of these overseas online media still has a certain degree of support for the time being. However, in the long run, as Hong Kong expatriates gradually integrate into the local community, their interest in Hong Kong issues will gradually diminish, and these media outlets will still have to find a route that suits their audience.