Hong Kong tightens sedition law amid ongoing trials of media outlets

In a decision that is anticipated to impact both the government’s new national security law and the ongoing trials of news organisations, Hong Kong’s appeal court reduced the bar for convictions of sedition Thursday.

Once a seldom-used holdover from Hong Kong’s British colonial past, the sedition offense was revived in 2019 in the wake of the democracy protests in the financial center by Beijing.

As per reports, it was used in 2022 during the first sedition trial since Hong Kong was turned over to China in 1997, leading radio DJ and democracy activist Tam Tak-chi was found guilty. His sentence included seven counts of “uttering seditious words” and forty months in prison for a total of eleven offenses.

Judges rejected Tam’s appeal Thursday, ruling it was unnecessary to prove intention to incite violence to convict a defendant of sedition.

“Modern experiences show that seditious acts or activities endangering national security now take many diversified forms,” they said in a written judgment.

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“(To) effectively respond to seditious acts or activities endangering national security, seditious intention has to be broadly framed to encompass a myriad of situations.”

Thursday’s ruling will have binding effects on lower courts in similar cases, including the ongoing trials of two shuttered news outlets, Stand News and Apple Daily, for “seditious publications”.

It will also serve as a judicial benchmark as the government drafts its own national security law – which will co-exist alongside the law Beijing imposed in 2020 – with a view to raise the penalty for sedition offences.

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During the national security law’s public consultation last month, authorities suggested expanding “seditious intention” to cover inducing disaffection against China’s Communist leadership and socialist system, as well as Beijing’s apparatuses in Hong Kong.

Thursday’s decision also diverges from a ruling made in October by Britain’s Privy Council – a top authority in the common law world.

In a case related to the Sedition Act of Commonwealth member Trinidad and Tobago, the Privy Council decided that the “true interpretation” of sedition must have “an intention to incite violence or disorder”.

Hong Kong High Court Chief Justice Jeremy Poon said Thursday the court “has reservations” on whether the Privy Council ruling is applicable.

“Seditious intention in any given criminal code must be interpreted by reference to the specific legal and social landscape in which it exists,” he said.

Tam, who took part in Hong Kong’s massive and at times violent democracy protests that kicked off in 2019, is also among a group of 47 activists accused of subversion in the city’s largest national security case.

With inputs from AFP