Hundreds of Hong Kong police officers arrested six current or former senior staff members of the pro-democracy news website Stand News and raided their headquarters. This is the latest crackdown by the Hong Kong government on independent media since implementing the national security law in 2020. Stand News was one of the last openly pro-democracy outlets in Hong Kong. The arrests were made under suspicion of conspiring to publish seditious material but signal further restrictions on freedom of press and expression.

1. Hong Kong Police Arrest 6 Linked to Pro-Democracy
News Site
The current or former senior staff members of Stand News were held on
suspicion of conspiring to publish seditious material. More than 200 officers
raided the news site’s headquarters.
HONG KONG — Hundreds of Hong Kong police officers arrested six current
or former senior staff members of an outspokenpro-democracynews website
and raided the site’s headquarters on Wednesday, in yet another crackdownby
the government on the city’s once-vibrant independent press.
Figure 1 Mr. Lam had just taken over as acting editor in chief in November
The six were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to publish seditious material,
according to a statement from the police, which did not specify the news outlet.
But Stand News, a seven-year-old online publication, posted brief video footage
on Facebookshowing police officers at the doors of one of its deputy editors,

2. RonsonChan, about 6 a.m. Officers then asked Mr. Chan to stop filming,
claiming he was interfering with their work.
More than 200 officers entered the publication’s headquarters in Hong Kong
and conducted a search, the police said. Footage and photos reviewed by The
New York Times showed officers stringing orange tape across a hallway inside
the office building, and apparently wheeling suitcases and boxes containing
computers and other materials out of the newsroom. A photo showed at least
two dozen large blue plastic boxes stacked in the building’s lobby.
Separate footage showed Patrick Lam, the acting editor in chief of Stand News,
being escorted away from his home in handcuffs. A woman asked Mr. Lam if
he had anything to say, to which both he and an officer replied, “Lookonline.”
Denise Ho, a popular local singer who had served on the board of the news site,
was also arrested, according to a poston her Facebookpage.
Hong Kong officials have targeted critics across civil society, including in the
news media, since the Chinese Communist Party imposed a national security
law on the city in June 2020 to quell months of fierce pro-democracyprotests in
2019.
Earlier this year, Apple Daily, perhaps the city’s best-known pro-democracy
newspaper was forced to close after multiple police raids of its newsroom and
the arrests of several top editors and its founder, Jimmy Lai.
On Tuesday, Mr. Lai was charged with a new accusation of sedition related to
the newspaper, as were six other former senior employees. Mr. Lai, one of
Hong Kong’s most prominent opposition voices, had already been sentenced to
20 months in prison in relation to his supportof the pro-democracymovement,
and he faces up to life in prison on other charges.

3. Officials have sent warning letters to foreign news outlets about coverage they
dislike, and several foreign journalists have been denied visas to work in the
former British colony. The government has also announced plans to enact a law
against so-called fake news.
After Apple Daily folded, Stand News became one of the city’s last openly pro-
democracy outlets, and officials made clear that it could be targeted next.
During the 2019 protests, Stand News reporters had documented episodes
including a mob attack on pro-democracyprotesters in a subway station; one
reporter, Gwyneth Ho, was herself attacked. (Ms. Ho, who later resigned to
enter politics, is now in jail.) In June this year, Stand News said it had removed
online commentaries published in May or earlier, noting that Hong Kong was
beginning to target “speechcrimes.”
Hong Kong’s security secretary, Chris Tang, earlier this month accused the
news site of “biased, smearing and demonizing” reports about conditions at a
prison in the city. Lau Siu-Kai, an adviser to Beijing, was even blunter, telling
Chinese state media that “the survival room” for opposition news outlets was
shrinking.
“Stand News will come into an end,” Mr. Lau said.
It was not immediately clear whether the outlet would face charges under the
national security law, which can bring up to life imprisonment. The sedition
charge does not fall under the security law but rather stems from a colonial-era
ordinance. But the arrests were carried out by the national security police, and
the warrant for the newsroom raid was issued under the security law, the police
said.

4. Legal experts said the arrests showed that the authorities were blurring the lines
between the security law and other criminal laws in Hong Kong, essentially
allowing the security law’s more sweeping provisions, such as stricter bail
conditions, to be used in more cases.
The police’s national security department could “expand its authority to cover
all sorts of non-NSL cases,”Thomas Kellogg, executive director of Georgetown
University’s Center for Asian Law, wrote on Twitter, using an acronym for the
national security law.
Figure 2 A Stand News editor, Ronson Chan, center, was questioned by police officers in Hong Kong on
Wednesday
Mr. Chan, the Stand News editor whose home was searched on Wednesday,
was not among the six arrested. He was released after being questioned and told
reporters that the police had seized his laptop, phone and iPad, as well as bank
documents and his press accreditation.

5. “Stand News has always reported professionally,” Mr. Chan said. “This is
obvious for the whole world to see.”
Mr. Chan also leads the Hong Kong Journalists Association, a trade
organization of about 500 local journalists that has come under scrutiny.
Mr. Tang, the security secretary, accused the association in September of
“infiltrating” campuses and recruiting unprofessional student journalists; he also
suggested that it had received foreign funding. The security law criminalizes
collusion with foreign forces.
Mr. Chan had remained defiant after those accusations. In an interview in
September with Hong Kong’s public broadcaster — which itself has come
under severe official pressure — he denied any violations of the security law.
“We’re aware of what the Hong Kong Journalists Association means to the
media industry and to Hong Kong society, so we will not dissolve easily,” he
said. “We will do our best to discharge our duty until the last moment.”
In a statement on Wednesday, the association said it was “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.”
Hong Kong officials have denied any crackdown on press freedom. In an
appearance at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong in September,
Regina Ip, a pro-Beijing lawmaker, pointed to Stand News as proofthat
freedom of speech was intact.

6. “The freedom of expression is still alive and well,” she said. “Hong Kong Stand
News, all these websites are still carrying on as usual.”