Hong Kong Journalists to Get Verdict in Test Case for Press Freedom

A national security judge in Hong Kong will deliver a verdict Thursday in the drawn-out trial of two journalists accused of sedition over articles published on their news site, a ruling that will make clearer the new limits on press freedom in the city.

The former editor in chief of Stand News, Chung Pui-kuen, and his successor, Patrick Lam, are charged with conspiring to publish seditious materials on the site, a now-defunct liberal news outlet that featured pro-democracy voices.

During their trial, prosecutors characterized news articles and opinion pieces published by the two as biased against the government and a threat to national security.

The stories were similar to those Stand News had been publishing for years. But after authorities crushed protests that rocked the city in 2019, China imposed a national security law, and tolerance for dissent in the city’s freewheeling media began to evaporate.

The two editors have maintained their innocence. Mr. Chung said in his court testimony that they were operating within journalistic principles, to deliver stories with news value and of public interest.

“We didn’t have a hidden agenda, or any other goals that you couldn’t see,” he said in his testimony during the trial last year. “When we saw very important events with a lot of public interest; we only wanted to document them.”