Hong Kong leader says arrests at pro-democracy outlet not meant to suppress media
Global News
About 200 police raided the Stand News office on Wednesday, froze its assets and arrested the seven current and former senior editors and former board members.
A Hong Kong police raid on a pro-democracy media organisation and the arrest of seven people connected with it was aimed at seditious activity not the suppression of the media, the city government’s leader said on Thursday.
About 200 police raided the Stand News office on Wednesday, froze its assets and arrested the seven current and former senior editors and former board members, for “conspiracy to publish seditious publications”.
They were in police detention some 30 hours after their arrest, awaiting formal charges or release. Under Hong Kong law, police can detain suspects for a maximum of 48 hours.
The raid was the latest crackdown on the media and on dissent in general in the former British colony since China imposed a tough national security law in the city last year aimed at putting an end to months of pro-democracy protests.
“These actions have nothing to do with so-called suppression of press freedom,” Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam told reporters.
“Journalism is not seditious … but seditious activities could not be condoned under the guise of news reporting.”
Set up in 2014 as a non-profit organisation, Stand News was the most prominent remaining pro-democracy publication in Hong Kong after a national security investigation this year led to the closure of jailed tycoon Jimmy Lai’s Apple Daily tabloid.
Stand News, an online publication, shut down hours after the raid and all of its employees were dismissed.
Lawmakers from both parties said Sunday they support congressional reviews of recent U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs.
Hundreds more are missing following flooding and landslides in the past week, which killed at least 604 people in Indonesia, 366 in Sri Lanka and 176 in Thailand, authorities said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other U.S. officials held talks with a Ukrainian delegation to further hash out the details of a proposed peace framework.