Hundreds of Hong Kong national security police raided the newsroom of the pro-democracy online newspaper Stand News this Wednesday (29), local time, Tuesday night (28) in Brazil, and arrested six people for “conspiracy to publicize seditious publications”.
Created in 2014 as a non-profit organization, Stand News is the most important pro-democracy publication still hanging on in the territory after the Apple Daily closed this year.
According to Hungarian media, among those arrested on Wednesday are lawyer and former Democratic lawmaker Margaret Ng, pop singer Denise Ho, current editor-in-chief Patrick Lam, and two former board members, Chow Tat-chi and Christine Fang.
Stand News published a video of police arriving at the home of deputy editor Ronson Chan, who is also head of the Hong Kong Journalists Association.
“The prosecution was conspiracy to release seditious publications. This is the court’s warrant and this is my warrant. Your phone is obstructing our work,” says an official shown in the video. Local broadcaster Cable TV said Chan was not arrested and only assisted in the investigation.
In a separate statement, police detailed that they had arrested three men and three women, aged between 34 and 73, and that searches of their homes were ongoing. As usual, he did not release the names of the prisoners.
The Stand News Office, located in an industrial building in Kwun Tong district, was partially closed, with dozens of police circulating in the lobby and four vans parked on the ground floor, according to a reporter with the Reuters news agency.
In a statement, the police explained that they had conducted a search with a warrant that authorized them to “search and bring relevant journalistic material.” According to the text, more than 200 police officers participated in the operation. The newspaper’s command could not be reached for comment on the action.
This Wednesday’s operation raises concerns about freedom of expression and media in the former British colony – which returned to the helm of China in 1997 with the promise of protecting diverse individual rights.
Sedition is not among the offenses listed in Beijing’s national security law imposed on the island in June of last year. Are punishable, for example, terrorism, collusion with foreign forces, subversion and secession, with sentences up to life imprisonment.
Recent trials, however, have allowed authorities to use powers under the new legislation to implement colonial-era laws that were previously used sparingly, including the Order of Crime covering sedition.
Officials argue that the national security law has restored order after the 2019 pro-democracy protests, which are labeled frequently violent, and does not limit rights and freedoms. Critics, on the other hand, argue that the legislation is a tool to quell dissent and has set the global financial market hub on an authoritarian path.
The Stand News operation comes about six months after hundreds of agents stormed the Apple Daily Newsroom, arresting executives for alleged crimes of collusion with a foreign country. In the following days, after the police froze the publication’s assets, the newspaper ended its circulation.
On Tuesday, prosecutors filed charges of seditious publications against Jimmy Lai, an Apple Daily executive, and six other former Apple Daily employees, in addition to the charges that had already been filed. According to the prosecution’s argument, the publications could bring hatred or contempt” or “motivate discontent” against the governments of Hong Kong and China.
Police did not release, however, which reports in the Apple Daily or Stand News were considered seditious.
Stand News’ mission is that the newspaper must be independent, autonomous and committed to safeguarding Hong Kong’s core values ​​of “democracy, human rights, the rule of law and justice”.
After the Apple Daily raid, Stand News said it would stop accepting donations from readers and withdrew comments from the platform to protect supporters, authors and editorial staff, adding that “speech crimes” had reached Hong Kong.
The June announcement said that Ng, Ho and four others had resigned from the board, with the two founding directors, Tony Tsoi and former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen remaining.
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