Canadian Denise Ho released on bail after Hong Kong police raid Stand News
Global News
Denise Ho, a pop star and activist who serves as a member of the board of Stand News, was released on bail pending further investigation.
Canadian Denise Ho was released on bail in Hong Kong Thursday after being arrested following a police raid on a pro-democracy news outlet.
Ho, a pop star and activist who serves as a board member of Stand News, was released on bail pending further investigation, Reuters and The Associated Press report.
Meanwhile, a Hong Kong court denied bail to two former senior editors charged with conspiring to publish seditious materials at Stand News.
Roughly 200 officers raided the office of the online publication on Wednesday, freezing its assets and arresting seven current and former senior editors and former board members. The move has been seen as the latest crackdown on the city’s press.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam defended the raid, telling reporters that “inciting other people … could not be condoned under the guise of news reporting.”
Stand News said Wednesday that it has ceased operations and has laid off all its staff.
Advocates and some western governments criticized the raid and arrests as a sign of further erosion of press freedoms since China imposed a wide-ranging national security law in the former British colony last year.
Mélanie Joly, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, said in a series of tweets Wednesday that the government is “deeply concerned” by the raid and arrests.
