Hong Kong court sentences editor to 21 months in jail in a case seen as a barometer of press freedom

Associated Press

HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong court has sentenced a former editor of a shuttered news publication to 21 months in prison in a sedition case widely seen as an indicator of media freedom in the city, once hailed as a beacon of press freedom in Asia. A second editor was freed after his sentence was reduced because of ill health and time already served in custody. Former Stand News editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam are the first journalists convicted under a colonial-era sedition law since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Chung was sentenced to 21 months, while Lam was also sentenced but allowed to go free.