well ofon two senior former senior editors from Stan news Chong poy and Patrick lamb as well as the parent company of Stan news best pencil have now been found guilty of conspiracy to publish sedici material now they plead entered not guilty pleas in October 2022 so this case this trial has been going on on and off now for nearly 2 years and the verdict was delayed several times now that they've been found guilty they are facing jail terms of up to 2 years and it's a very significant development because it is the first time that there has been a verdict uh under this colonial era sedition law involving a media Outlet since Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997 now Chong boy actually gave evidence he was in the witness stand for more than 30 days and he argued that Stan news had only reported truth and facts but in a summary of the Judgment the court says it found that stanus had become had been become a tool to smear and vilify Beijing and Hong Kong authorities during those enormous protests in 2019 now Chong poon was present in court today for this verdict Patrick lamb was not due to medical reasons but his lawyer read out a mitigation letter on his behalf uh in that letter Patrick lamb says news workers not only have to take responsibility for their stories if we know that the public has a right to know but deliberately avoid reporting it that is also a dereliction of Duty because of this the only way for a journalist to defend press freedom is through reporting Kathleen what reaction have we seen to the verdict well Steve Lee of Hong Kong's National Security Police has said that it's uh a positive development he says it actually will help press freedom because it has clarified what issues might be considered sedici but overall it's really drawn a lot of criticism Human Rights Watch has responded calling the verdict another milestone in Hong Kong's alarming deterioration of basic right rights and calling on the Hong Kong and Beijing authorities to Halt their Crackdown on the city now uh the prosecution's argument or case in the uh in this trial centered on 17 articles that they say had sedici content uh they were published in 2020 and 2021 and included commentary and also features and interviews with uh some former lawmakers Pro democracy lawmakers including Ted qu who now lives in Adelaide working as a lawyer and I spoke to him a little bit earlier about what he thinks about this outcome it's symbolic in terms of uh reflecting Hong Kong's deteriorating uh freedom of speech and freedom of press in Hong Kong and noting that this case doesn't Target only the media organization stand news also T also targets uh the Editor in Chief and the deputy Editor in Chief it's a sign that journalists in Hong Kong are not safe anymore no matter it's local journalist or exper journalists they can be prosecuted and they can be convicted and put to jail any time and this threat is imminent and this threat is very real gu Lin can tell us a bit more about how significant this case is and what it means for press freedom in Hong Kong well it really has been criticized as another blow to press freedom in Hong Kong uh obviously once upon a time Hong Kong was rep reputed for having a vibrant liberal uh media scene it used to be uh considered uh 18th in the world press Freedom rank rankings which are prepared by reporters out Without Borders that has in the last 20 years dropped to 135th out of 180 countries so an enormous erosion of press Freedom that's already occurred in Hong Kong really in the last five or so years at its worst um Stan news of course closed down in 2021 on the back of those raids and the arrests of these these staff uh other outlets have closed down namely most significantly Apple Daily which was a long standing pro-democracy newspaper and the founder of that newspaper Jimmy lie he is in jail in Hong Kong he's currently on trial for National Security offenses now at 76 if he's found guilty he is facing a life sentence in prison in Hong Kong uh so that's the next big trial that people will really be watching very closely Kathleen cwood thank you e