周四，香港法院对两名编辑下达判决，在一项关键案例中体现了中国强化控制如何削弱了这座城市本已自由的新闻自由。
被判在“端传媒”案中罪名成立的记者钟沛君和接任者潘志刚此前被控合谋刊发颠覆性材料。这家前民主派新闻网站现在已经被关闭。“端传媒”与香港其他数家新闻机构曾作为该特别行政区提供在中国大陆无法想象的自由权利的例子存在。
2019年，反政府抗议活动在港岛激起波澜后，北京通过强力国家安全法压制了反对力量。尽管如此，“端传媒”继续在其社论和采访中刊登民主声音。
2021年12月，在数百名警员搜查报社并收集证据后的几个月内，“端传媒”关闭。当钟沛君与潘志刚在8月份被定罪时，他们已被拘押近一年，并于其保释后获释。为期近两个月的审判推迟了三次。
周四判决后，潘志刚由于罕见的肾病需要定期血液透析和医疗监测而获准外出。但钟沛君则站在玻璃审讯箱内等待重新入狱。他昔日同事挥挥手走出法庭，并向其微笑招手回应。
在被判罪名成立后，钟沛君曾向法官写信，坚信香港仍然有许多人支持言论自由与独立媒体：
“他们中的有些人关心社区内每个人的自由和尊严，并愿意为失去自己的自由付出代价。”
他认为记者的职责是“实事求是地报道故事和观点”。
人权活动人士及新闻组织表示，“端传媒”编辑案判决彰显了这座城市新闻自由下滑的情况，引发了关于政府可能认为非法的新闻活动的质疑。香港记协表示反对使用颠覆法律对行使宪法权利进行新闻采编的人士进行起诉。
今年8月，国外记者会发表声明称，“端传媒”一案判决在港岛及拥有该市分部的国际新闻机构中引起震撼，他们正在设法理解日常工作是否可能违反香港法律。
面对关于新闻自由的担忧，政府作出回应：“所有公民包括记者都需要遵守一切法律法规。”政府表示，“他们在不违反法律的情况下评论和批评政府政策的自由未受影响。”
尽管如此，官员们已经明确划定了新的界限。在“端传媒”关闭前，另一家民主倾向的《苹果日报》便遭到封锁，这家媒体大亨蔡剑民拥有的狂野出版物被警方调查，而他本人也因国家安全指控面临审判。
多位记者和摄影师因工作签证被拒或被禁止进入城市，其中包括曾拍摄过蔡剑民在铁丝围栏中行走的《美联社》摄影师。当政治漫画家尊子讽刺了警局后，政府官员多次谴责他直至他在服务40年的报纸上暂停了其漫画专栏。
许多当地新闻机构停止报道香港流亡者的努力，这些人在关注中国政府对城市的镇压时起着关键作用。其他网站在编辑社论底部添加免责声明称，评论员意见不代表出版物立场，并无意图违反国家安全法。
除了面临法律风险外，数十名记者、家人和邻居被系统性骚扰，包括死亡威胁、勒索信及网络谩骂，据香港记协本月披露。
此外，港府还对异议人士展开了更广泛的打压。研究者在乔治城亚洲法律中心维护的数据库显示，近300人因国家安全或颠覆法而被捕，超过70人被判有罪。
逾30名反对派议员及知名活动家面临集体审判后被量刑；另外，在另一起案件中，被指控与外部势力勾结的媒体大亨蔡剑民预计将被判长期监禁。
新闻来源：www.nytimes.com
原文地址：Hong Kong Editors Sentenced in Landmark Press Freedom Case
新闻日期：2024-09-26
原文摘要：
A judge in Hong Kong on Thursday handed down sentences to two editors in a landmark case that showed how a crackdown by China has curtailed press freedoms in the once-freewheeling city. The two journalists, Chung Pui-kuen, and his successor, Patrick Lam, were convicted in August of conspiring to publish seditious materials on Stand News, a now defunct pro-democracy news site. Mr. Chung was sentenced to 21 months, and Mr. Lam, who has a serious health condition, to the time he had already served between his arrest and his release on bail — slightly less than a year. Stand News, like several other news outlets in Hong Kong, was once an example of the civil liberties the city offered that were unimaginable in the rest of China. It pursued investigations exposing the government’s failures and gave voice to the city’s beleaguered pro-democracy movement. After antigovernment protests roiled Hong Kong in 2019, Beijing crushed the opposition with a powerful national security law. But Stand News continued to publish pro-democracy voices in editorials and interviews. The outlet closed after Mr. Chung and Mr. Lam were arrested in December 2021, when hundreds of police officers raided the newsroom and collected boxes of evidence. After their arrests, both journalists were detained for nearly a year before being released on bail. Their trial started in October 2022 and lasted nearly two months, with the verdict postponed three times. On Thursday, Mr. Lam, who has a rare kidney disorder that requires dialysis and frequent medical monitoring, was told he could walk free. Mr. Chung stood in the glass witness box, waiting to be taken back into custody. Former colleagues waved to him as they were ushered out of the courtroom. Mr. Chung smiled and waved back. In a letter to the judge after his conviction, Mr. Chung wrote that he believed that many people in Hong Kong still supported free expression and an independent press. “Some of them care about the freedom and dignity of everyone in the community and are willing to pay the price of losing their own freedom,” he wrote. “It is the unshakable responsibility of journalists to report their stories and thoughts truthfully.” Rights activists and journalist groups say the prosecution of the Stand News editors made clear the decline of press freedom in the city and raised questions about what journalistic activities the authorities might consider illegal. The Hong Kong Journalists Association, which itself has become a target of government criticism, has said it opposed using sedition laws to “prosecute people exercising their constitutional right to conduct journalism.” In a statement in August, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club said that the Stand verdicts sent “shock waves through Hong Kong newsrooms, as well as international news organizations with bureaus in the city, as they seek to understand whether their day-to-day operations could be in violation of Hong Kong law.” The government has hit back at those raising concerns about press freedom. “Journalists, like everyone else, have an obligation to abide by all the laws,” a government statement said. “Their freedom of commenting on and criticizing government policies remains uninhibited as long as they do not violate the law.” Nonetheless, officials have made clear the lines have been redrawn. Stand News’s closure was preceded by the shutdown of Apple Daily, a rambunctious, pro-democracy publication owned by the media mogul Jimmy Lai, who is himself on trial for national security charges. Several journalists and photographers have been denied work visas or barred from entering the city, including an Associated Press photographer who previously photographed Mr. Lai walking in a barbed wire enclosure. After a political cartoonist, Zunzi, satirized the police, government officials denounced him repeatedly until the newspaper where he had worked for four decades suspended his cartoon column. Many local news outlets have stopped reporting on efforts by Hong Kong activists, now in exile, who draw attention to China’s crackdown on the city. Other news sites have taken to placing disclaimers at the bottom at editorials saying that opinions of editorial writers did not reflect those of the outlet, and that there was no intention to violate the national security law. Beyond facing legal risks, dozens of journalists, their families and neighbors have been targets of what appeared to be a systematic harassment campaign, including death threats, ransom letters and online trolling, the Hong Kong Journalists Association said this month. The Hong Kong authorities have also engaged in a broader crackdown on dissent. According to a database maintained by researchers at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, nearly 300 people have been arrested on national security or sedition offenses, with over 70 convicted. More than 30 opposition lawmakers and prominent activists await sentencing in a mass trial. In a separate case, Mr. Lai, the media tycoon accused of conspiracy and collusion with foreign forces, faces what many experts expect will be a lengthy prison sentence. Before announcing the sentences on Thursday, Judge Kwok Wai-kin said that imprisonment was the “only appropriate punishment” for publishing articles he described as seditious. Stand News was not solely a news outlet without a political stance, he said, but rather it was a participant in a movement at a time when many lacked trust in government. Some editorials failed to provide context and balanced analysis, he said, and a star reporter later ran for office as an opposition candidate. The cumulative effect, he said, was “serious, unquantifiable harm to the public.”
