Margaret Ng, Denise Ho Among Six Current and Former Stand News Journalists and Executives Arrested for “Conspiracy to Publish Seditious Publications”

Police also raided the online news platform’s offices and home of Hong Kong Journalist Association's Head

Washington, DC (December 28, 2021) -  In response to the early morning arrests of six former and current Stand News journalists and executives, including Chief Editor Patrick Lam, former Chief Editor Chung Pui-Kuen, former board members Chow Tat-chi, Margaret Ng, Christine Fang, Denise Ho, and the raids of Stand News' offices and home of Ronson Chan, the head of Hong Kong Journalist Association by the Hong Kong Police National Security Department for “conspiracy to publish seditious publications,” the Campaign for Hong Kong releases the following statement from founder and president, Samuel Chu:

“By executing early morning arrests of six former and current Stand News journalists and executives and raids of the nonprofit news platform’s offices and the home of Ronson Chan, head of the Hong Kong Journalists Association just hours after the Association’s annual dinner, Beijing is sending a ‘death threat’ to what little remains of Hong Kong’s press freedom - and doing so with maximum cruelty and sadism.

The raid of the Stand News offices by more than 200 security police conjures images of the shocking raid and attack on Apple Daily earlier this year. And today, Hong Kong prosecutors also filed ‘conspiracy to publish seditious publications’ charges against already imprisoned Jimmy Lai, former founder and chairman of Next Media and Apple Daily - which were forced to close by government authorities earlier this year. 

We strongly condemn this dangerous use of colonial-era sedition laws to strangle press freedom and freedom of expression, and we also know that this attack will not stop with just Hong Kong media companies. How long will foreign journalists be allowed to continue working in the city? How soon until China’s ‘Great Firewall’ will be enforced across the internet to limit all sources of information in and from Hong Kong?

After the recent political ‘purge’ - framed as ‘elections’ by the government - that left the Legislative Council with no opposition, the regime is now sounding the death knell for the city's media and journalists.

We urge the US government and its allies, along with news organizations and journalists worldwide, to condemn this latest assault on press freedom and to work toward the release of all imprisoned journalists in Hong Kong and China.”

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