Hong Kong police accuse Reuters of sedition of two former Stand New editors

Clare Jim and Sara Cheng

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Two former editors arrested in a Hong Kong police crackdown were arrested against a pro-democracy media organization on Thursday for sedition-related crimes, national security officials said.

About 200 police officers searched the Stand News publishing house on Wednesday, froze their belongings and arrested seven editors-in-chief and former members of the committee.

The attack on the former British colony was the latest in a crackdown on media and dissent in general since China enacted a strict national security law in the city last year to end months of pro-democracy protests.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the two men, aged 34 and 52, were charged with “conspiracy to publish seditious publications”. Police did not identify the couple.

The same charge was spread to an online media company without identifying Stand News in accordance with its practice.

“Other detainees are being held for further investigation,” the department said.

Police said earlier that seven people had been arrested in a “conspiracy to publish seditious publications.”

The media reported that all seven were former CEOs of Stand News.

Media advocacy groups, including some Western governments, including Canada and Germany, and the UN Office of Human Rights condemned Stand News’ attack and arrests as a sign of the erosion of press freedom in the global financial center.

Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, promising to protect the protection of a wide range of individual rights, including the free press.

City government chief Carrie Lam said the action against Stand News was aimed at seditious activity, not media oppression.

“These actions have nothing to do with the so-called oppression of press freedom,” Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam told reporters.

“Journalism is not seditious … but seductive activities cannot be tolerated in the form of news.”

‘SHEEP’

Founded in 2014 as a non-profit organization, Stand News was the most prominent pro-democracy publication in Hong Kong after a national security investigation this year shut down Jimmy Lair’s jailed tycoon Apple (NASDAQ 🙂 Daily tabloid.

The Stand News attack closed a few hours later and all its staff were fired. His website was not available on Thursday and the head of the London office, Yeung Tin Shui, told Facebook (NASDAQ 🙂 that he had also closed his office.

The two accused were former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, the acting editor-in-chief at the time of the arrest. He is expected to appear in West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.

Four former members of the Stand News committee – former Democratic MP Margaret Ng, pop singer Denise Ho, Chow Tat-chi and Christine Fang – remain in police custody. Chung’s wife, Chan Pui-man, was first arrested on Apple Daily in jail.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blink has called on Chinese and Hong Kong authorities to release the detainees immediately.

Lame, referring to Blinken’s call, said this would be against the rule of law.

The Hong Kong office of the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it was using support for press freedom as an excuse to break the stability of the city.

“Those who endanger national security and engage in activities that undermine the rule of law and law and order are black sheep who undermine press freedom under the guise of journalism and will be held accountable,” he said in a statement.

(Written by Marius Zaharia; Christian Schmollinger, edited by Robert Birsel)