Two journalists have been put behind bars in Hong Kong on charges of sedition.
Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam used to run the pro-democracy media outlet, Stand Now. It had published articles on the Chinese crackdown in the city.
According to the BBC, Chung was sentenced to 21 months in jail while Lam was sentenced to 11 months. However, Lam was released on medical grounds.
Stand Now’s publisher was also fined 5 000 Hong Kong dollars (about R11 000).
The trial began in 2022 and was expected to end quickly, but dragged on. A Hong Kong court found that 11 articles published by Stand Now were “seditious” and that Stand Now had also become a danger to “national security”.
Chung and Lam were charged under a colonial-era anti-sedition law rather than the controversial national security law, which was passed more recently.
The sentencing has seen an outcry across the world, with this latest incident being seen as the end of media freedom in Hong Kong. Reporters without Borders was quoted as saying that this was “yet another nail in the coffin for press freedom in Hong Kong”.