One of Hong Kong’s last pro-democracy news outlets closes after raid and arrests
HONG KONG — A vocal pro-democracy website in Hong Kong shut down Wednesday after police raided its office and arrested six current and former editors and board members in the authorities’ continued crackdown on dissent at Beijing’s behest.
Stand News said in a statement that its website and social media were no longer being updated and would be taken down. It said all employees have been dismissed.
The outlet was one of the last remaining openly critical voices in Hong Kong following the shuttering of the Apple Daily newspaper, which closed after its publisher, Jimmy Lai, and top editors were arrested and its assets frozen.
Police raided Stand News’ office earlier in the day after arresting the six people affiliated with it, including popular singer and activist Denise Ho, a former board member, on charges of conspiracy to publish a seditious publication.
More than 200 officers were involved in the search of Stand News’ office, police said. They had a warrant to seize relevant journalistic materials under a national security law enacted last year.
The six were arrested under a criminal statute that dates from Hong Kong’s days as a British colony, before it was returned to China in 1997. Those convicted could face up to two years in prison and a fine of up to 5,000 Hong Kong dollars ($640).
Thousands of people from Hong Kong are fleeing increasing Chinese control over their lives and moving to Britain, which ruled the city for 156 years.
Police did not identify those arrested, but Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper reported that the group consisted of one current and one former editor of Stand News plus four former board members, including Ho and former lawmaker Margaret Ng.
A Facebook post early Wednesday on Ho’s account confirmed that she was being arrested. A subsequent message posted on her behalf said she was OK and urged friends and supporters not to worry about her.
That post drew nearly 40,000 likes and 2,700 comments, mostly from supporters.
Early Wednesday, Stand News posted a video on Facebook of police officers at the home of a deputy editor, Ronson Chan. Chan, who is also chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Assn., was taken away for questioning, the organization confirmed in a statement.
China is targeting government opponents through financial institutions using a draconian national security law that’s already led to U.S. sanctions.
Chan, who was later released, told media that police seized his electronic devices, bank cards and press card.
Previously, Hong Kong police raided the offices of the now-defunct Apple Daily, seizing boxes of materials and computer hard drives to assist in their investigation and freezing millions in assets, which forced the newspaper to cease operations.
On Tuesday, police charged the Apple Daily’s Lai, already in jail on other charges, with sedition.
“We are not targeting reporters, we are not targeting the media, we just targeted national security offenses,” said Li Kwai-wah, senior superintendent of Hong Kong’s police force, the National Security Department. “If you only report, I don’t think this is a problem.”
The final edition of Apple Daily, Hong Kong’s last remaining pro-democracy newspaper, sold out in hours as readers scooped up all 1 million copies.
He said at a news conference that those arrested had to account for their actions even if they had resigned from Stand News.
Asked what advice he had for the media, Li replied, “Don’t be biased. You know well how to report, how to be a responsible reporter, how to make a non-biased report to your readers. That’s all I can give you.”
Stand News earlier this year said it would suspend subscriptions and remove most opinion pieces and columns from its website because of the draconian national security law. Six board members also resigned from the company.
The journalists’ association urged the city’s government to protect press freedom in accordance with Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law.
For Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, 2021 saw the city’s authorities and the Beijing government stamp out nearly everything it had stood for.
“The Hong Kong Journalists Assn. is deeply concerned that the police have repeatedly arrested senior members of the media and searched the offices of news organizations containing large quantities of journalistic materials within a year,” it said in a statement.
Benedict Rogers, co-founder and CEO of the nongovernmental organization Hong Kong Watch, said the arrests are “nothing short of an all-out assault on the freedom of the press in Hong Kong.”
“When a free press guaranteed by Hong Kong’s Basic Law is labeled ‘seditious,’ it is a symbol of the speed at which this once-great, open, international city has descended into little more than a police state,” he said.
Wednesday’s arrests also followed the removal of sculptures and other artwork from university campuses last week. The works supported democracy and memorialized the victims of China’s massacre of democracy protesters in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.
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