Journalists convicted in Hong Kong sedition case to Hong Kong now where a court has convicted two journalists of sedition the former editors of stand news which has now been shut down had been accused of inciting hatred against Beijing now this marks the first such ruling against journalists since the 1997 Handover of the former British colony to China CH po Kun arriving at court the former editorinchief of stand views in no doubt about the seriousness of this case and the likely verdict both he and another editor Patrick lamb were arrested in December 2021 they were charged with conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious Publications which they both denied on the same day the offices of stand news were raided by police with comp computers and other materials taken away as evidence the media outlet that began in 2014 was forced to shut down a Bitter End to a Chinese language website that had become so important during the pro-democracy protests that began in 2019 protests that both China and the Hong Kong authorities saw as a national security threat before finally stamping them out press freedom in Hong Kong has been under threat for some time the popular newspaper Apple Daily has also been forced to close its former owner the media Tycoon Jimmy lie is already in jail and is still facing other charges now that these stand news editors have been found guilty of sedition they too can expect prison sentences the latest example of beijing's Crackdown on Free Speech in Hong Kong and we can hear from the head Tom Grundy, Hong Kong Free Press Founder and Director of an English language news Outlet still reporting from Hong Kong Tom Grundy runs Hong Kong Free Press glad to have you back on DW Tom now conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious Publications can can you tell us what Stan news specifically did according to the court well prosecutors said that Stan news had tried to incite hatred against the government with content that promoted radical political ideologies 17 uh articles were in question these weren't editorials by the way uh but interviews with Democrats profiles um of activists uh a feature about uh the protests and even a hard news piece about a rights prize but uh 11 of these 17 articles today were found to be seditious judge quar saying that Chung and lamb knew of and agreed with a seditious intention of the Articles and they provided Stan news as a publication platform to incite hatred against Hong Kong in China now Stan news did have a pro democracy slant it arose from the aftermath of the 2014 Pro democracy umbrella movement it Rose to prominence during the 2019 unrest and protests and was very much a go-to source for demonstrators on the street but as the covid-19 restrictions and the new security law swept those protests away a year later in 202 uh one um the Stan news newsroom was raided by 200 National Security Police about $9 million us doar worth their assets were frozen and Stan news deleted its website uh shortly afterwards Tom based on what you've seen in Hong Kong since 2019 what s of sentencing could they now face well Chung and lamb have already spent a year Behind Bars awaiting trial and just uh an hour or two ago they were both granted bail ahead of sentencing on September 26th interestingly the Sedition offense has been upgraded whereby you can now get eight seven years in prison or 10 years if there a foreign forces involved this new article 23 out this year does mean that when if they do prison time as we'll learn next month they will not be eligible for any early release but uh unclear yet um what it's going to look like and I'd hesitate to uh speculate until the hearings are over how does this case impact what remains of press freedom in the city well the National Security Police top top cop um Steve Lee just said that this will clarify matters that no topics are banned um but you cannot publish with seditious intention but to be honest uh every Newsroom now will be impacted and we have to uh think hard about what um writers they have on their website and what exactly they will be writing reporters of that borders the EU and the local journalist Association have already spoken out uh reporters of that Bard are saying that this sets a very dangerous precedent for what remains of press freedom in the city and it comes you know over the past few years where we've seen a thousand journalists out of work about 10 news outlets shut down um and and Hong Kong just tumbling in the international press Freedom indices Tom Grandy founder of the Hong Kong Free Press News Outlet joining us from Hong Kong Tom thank you so much for your time we appreciate it thank you