Ex-editor of Hong Kong media outlet Stand News Patrick Lam seeks to overturn sedition conviction

Hong Kong Free Press

The former acting chief editor of independent Hong Kong media outlet Stand News is seeking to overturn his conviction for publishing “seditious” materials.

Ex-Stand News acting chief editor Patrick Lam leaves District Court at 7.30 pm on September 26, after District Judge Kwok Wai-kin reduced his initial sentence for “conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious publications,” on health grounds and allowed him to walk free. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

Patrick Lam, 36, was last month sentenced alongside former chief editor Chung Pui-kuen, 55, at Wan Chai’s District Court after the pair were found guilty in August of “conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious publications.” The outlet’s parent company was also found guilty of the colonial-era sedition charge.

Lam lodged the appeal on Tuesday, according to a court document seen by HKFP.

Lam, who was initially handed a 14-month jail term, walked free after District Court Judge Kwok Wai-kin determined that he would not have to serve extra time in jail after taking into account the 10 months Lam spent in pre-trial detention and his poor health.

Chung is currently serving a 21-month prison sentence.

Chung Pui-kuen arrives at District Court in Wan Chai on September 26, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

Defence counsel Audrey Eu, who represented both defendants, last month submitted medical reports indicating that Lam had been diagnosed with a condition that had left him with less than 30 per cent of kidney function.

‘The so-called resistance’

Stand News was forced to shutter in December 2021 after national security police raided its newsroom and froze its assets. The two editors and the outlet’s parent company were later charged under the colonial-era sedition offence, punishable by up to two years in jail.

Kwok last month ruled that the two editors were not conducting genuine journalism during the period of the offence, but instead “participating in the so-called resistance.”

Kwok found that the news outlet had published 11 articles ruled to be seditious, “at a time when over half of the Hong Kong society distrusted [Beijing] and [the local] government, the police, and the judiciary.”

The 11 articles, mostly opinion pieces critical of the authorities – caused “potential detrimental consequences to national security.”

Stand News “became a tool to smear and vilify the [Beijing] Authorities and the [Hong Kong] Government” during the 2019 protests and unrest, Kwok wrote.

Help safeguard press freedom & keep HKFP free for all readers by supporting our team