Stand News UK office shuts down following national security crackdown

Hong Kong pro-democracy media outlet Stand News will also shutter its UK branch after police raided its Hong Kong office, froze its assets, and arrested senior staff on suspected "seditious publication" offenses in the latest crackdown on the city's media.    

The news outlet's UK office chief Yeung Tin-shui on Thursday announced the decision to cease operations of the UK office and will step down from his position.    

All reporting on the Stand News website provided by the UK office and its social media accounts has also been removed, according to Yeung.   

He said the UK outlet had been established to follow up on Hongkongers who move to the country using the British National (Overseas) route.   

Yeung's comments came after the police arrested seven people in Hong Kong for conspiracy to publish seditious materials on Stand News. It also froze HK$61 million of the publication's assets.  

Steve Li Kwai-wah, senior superintendent of the national security department, questioned why Stand News opened a branch in the UK and the source of its HK$61 million assets. He said the police will probe whether the media colluded with foreign forces.   

Stand News' website and social media shut down on Wednesday night, hours after the arrest in the morning. All 70 staff members have been dismissed with immediate effect.   

Police have laid charges against Stand News, its former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam Shiu-tung, each with one count of conspiracy to publish a seditious publication.   

The case will be mentioned at the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts this afternoon.

Ronson Chan Ron-sing, a former deputy assignment editor at Stand News and chairman of Hong Kong Journalists Association, said citzens supported the media with funding as they were happy with reporters' live broadcasts during the unrest. 

"Over the past two years, colleagues spent numerous nights on the streets together with Hongkongers. They went further and stayed longer, broadcasting live for hours continuously. Citizens thought Stand News was worth supporting after watching those live," he said in a radio program, choking back tears. 

"It is unfair to make it sound like we got the money illegally."