The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has stated that the conviction of all three defendants in a case involving seditious publications signifies that justice has been firmly upheld.

The District Court found Stand News editors-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and Lam Shiu-tung, and Best Pencil (Hong Kong) Limited – the company that operated Stand News – guilty as charged.

In a statement, the Hong Kong SAR Government said that any individual or organisation that incites hatred and engages in acts and activities endangering national security can never escape sanction under the law.

In its verdict, the court stressed that the ideology of Stand News was that of “localism”, which excluded China. It said Stand News became a tool to smear and vilify the central authorities and the Hong Kong SAR Government during the “anti-extradition amendment bill” incidents.

The court found that the Stand News articles concerned in the case attacked the National Security Law, the Crimes Ordinance, and relevant law enforcement and prosecutorial processes, without any objective basis. It added that articles spread hatred and anti-government sentiment through disinformation, attacked law enforcement, and glorified rioters’ behaviour.

The court further held that Chung Pui-kuen and Lam Shiu-tung, while holding chief editorial positions at Stand News, had knowledge and approved of the seditious intent of the articles. It found that as a publishing platform, Stand News operated with the intention of inciting hatred against the central authorities and the Hong Kong SAR Government, as well as hatred against the administration of justice.

The court highlighted that according to the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights, the media and its personnel must – when publishing opinions, information and articles – observe and discharge “special duties and responsibilities”, including the protection of national security, public order, public health and morals.

The court also cited decisions under the European Convention on Human Rights outlining that journalists are entitled to the protection of the freedoms of expression and of the press on the basis that they act in good faith and on an accurate factual basis, and provide reliable and precise information.

In its press statement, the Hong Kong SAR Government said the Basic Law and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights guarantee fundamental rights, while clear lines are drawn between unlawful seditious expressions and lawful constructive criticisms under the Crimes Ordinance. The provisions are unambiguous, it said.

It added that, as demonstrated in the court’s reasons for its verdict, Stand News completely disregarded objective facts and contravened the “special duties and responsibilities” which journalists must observe under international human rights conventions.

It stressed that the claims made by individual media organisations, and by anti-China and destabilising individuals, as well as by foreign politicians and organisations with vicious motives, accusing the court of suppressing freedom of the press in its verdict, are utterly unfounded.

Distortion of hatred-inciting words and acts into “journalistic work” is the gravest insult against professional journalists in Hong Kong, the Government said.

The Hong Kong SAR Government said it will continue to enforce the law resolutely, decisively and rigorously, with a view to preventing, suppressing and imposing punishment against acts and activities endangering national security.