The Hong Kong police on Thursday, 30 December, charged two staff members of Stand News with sedition, one day after the news outlet announced that it would terminate its operations.
Seven people, including the editor-in-chief of Stand News, a pro-democracy news website in Hong Kong, were arrested by police officers after a raid had already been conducted at the agency's headquarters on Wednesday, 29 December.
National security police announced that two people, aged 34 and 52, had been charged with one count each of conspiracy to publish seditious material, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam are the two people who have been charged.
The police also stated that it would prosecute Stand News, accusing it of sedition.
These arrests are only the latest in what has been a long and brutal crackdown on Hong Kong's media, which was during its heyday an epitome of a free press.
Just a few hours after the office raid, Stand News made an announcement thanking its readers for their constant support, and that stated that its office shut with immediate effect.
"This morning, the police arrested a number of senior and former senior staff of the company, [and] took many people away to assist in the investigation," the statement added.
"Acting editor in chief, Patrick Lam, has resigned and all Stand News employees are dismissed."
Additionally, the Stand News website and its social media posts and pages among other things, will all be deleted.
All staff members were fired.
"Stand News’s editorial policy was to be independent and committed to safeguarding Hong Kong’s core values of democracy, human rights, freedom, the rule of law and justice," the announcement asserted.
Of the arrested people, three are men and four are women, aged between 34 and 73 years old.
According to Hong Kong police officials, the arrests were made because the suspects were hatching a "conspiracy to publish seditious publications".
Steve Li, a senior official, alleged that Stand News had published "inflammatory" content during a news conference, with an objective to incite hate against the ruling establishment vis à vis the 2019 protests.
This, however, not the first time such a crackdown has taken place in Hong Kong.
Closure of 'Apple Daily'
Hong Kong's Apple Daily, a best-selling Chinese language tabloid-style newspaper that functioned for 26 years between 1995 and 2021, was shut down earlier this year.
It was well known for being extremely critical of the Chinese state (of Mainland China) and the Chinese Communist Party.
The newspaper was also viewed as a torchbearer for the massive pro-democracy movement that took place between 2019 and 2020.
Not only did its editorial position support the pro-democracy protesters, it also launched campaigns to support the movement, often encouraging readers to participate in the protests with its front page pieces.
Then the raids began.
The Hong Kong offices were raided by hundreds of security officers in August last year.
One day prior to the raids, founder Jimmy Lai, a vocal critic of Mainland China, was jailed after being charged for violating the new national security law.
Then in mid June earlier this year, the Hong Kong authorities announced that Apple Daily's releases had also violated the national security law.
Bank accounts were frozen, and staff members were arrested.
The newspaper officially terminated its publications on 24 June 2021.
Speaking to BBC about the importance of the newspaper, Lokman Tsui, an assistant professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said, "Apple Daily really was a key institution of Hong Kong society."
"It was something people grew up with, [it was] part of our daily lives. There are other outlets, but no one was quite as big and vocal as Apple Daily. That's why the government was so annoyed with them," he added.
Additionally, while other news agencies and papers began "toeing the line of one country [one system]," says Dr Joyce Nip, a senior lecturer in Chinese media studies at the University of Sydney, Apple daily refused to do the same because it "generally disapproves of the Beijing political system, mainland China and its appointed administration in Hong Kong, both in its news agenda and in its [framing] of the news", the BBC report added.
Recap - Hong Kong's National Security Law
Officially known as the Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, it came into effect on 30 June 2020.
The law was a response to the 2019 Hong Kong extradition bill that would allow the Hong Kong government to consider extradition requests from a country with which it doesn't have an extradition treaty, such as Mainland China.
Protests erupted as observers and critics felt that anyone working for democracy in Hong Kong, after extradition to the mainland, would face an unfair trial and would also be exposed to the risk of torture while in detention.
But the Communist Party did not repeal the law, which claims to target secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, and applies to permanent residents as well as non-residents of Hong Kong, and even those who are outside of Hong Kong.
There are are several disturbing aspects of the legislation.
Firstly, Beijing set up national security agency in Hong Kong to oversee the execution of the law, which does not apply to security officers from the Mainland when they are in Hong Kong's territory, The Guardian reported.
Secondly, while the Hong Kong police and the courts are the main implementers of the law, there are cases where the Chinese Communist Party can step in, such as cases involving "complex situations of foreign interference by extraterritorial forces", or circumstances in which the CCP itself believes that the the Hong Kong government will be unable to enforce the law.
Finally, the press and public could be banned from being observers in a trial that the CCP could deem as one involving "state secrets".
Dissidents within Mainland China are often tried in closed-door trials.
The national security law has been used time and time again to arrest protesters, activists, and journalists in Hong Kong.
The arrest of journalists and the suppression of truth is extremely detrimental to Hong Kong's fight for freedom.
As Ronson Chan said during the annual dinner of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, Hong Kong "always need[s] the truth and always need[s] journalists... no matter how difficult the road ahead is."
(With inputs from AP, BBC, and The Guardian)
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