200 cops swoop on Stand News executives

Jane Cheung

National security police officers arrested seven past and present senior executives of pro-democracy online news outlet Stand News yesterday for allegedly conspiring to publish seditious material.

They also froze HK$61 million in assets following the arrests and a raid on Stand's office.

And before the day was finished Stand News announced it would discontinue operations and let go all of its 70 employees after seven years of operation.

That made it the second media organization after Apple Daily to fold following action against top executives.

Arrested were acting editor-in-chief Lam Shiu-tung, who also resigned yesterday, and five others who stepped down from the company by last month.

They were former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and four former board members: ex-legislator and barrister Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, singer and activist Denise Ho Wan-see, Chow Tat-chi, and Christine Fang Meng-sang, former chief executive of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service.

All were remanded overnight.

Chung's wife, Chan Pui-man, the former associate publisher of the now-defunct Apple Daily, was arrested for the same charge at around 8am at the Tai Lam Correctional Institution, where she is on remand for alleged national security offenses.

She is accused of having taken part in the publishing of seditious content with Stand News.

It is understood police have put Stand News co-founder Tony Tsoi Tung-ho, who has migrated to Australia, on the wanted list.

The raid by more than 200 uniformed and plainclothes officers on the Stand office in Kwun Tong started shortly after 6am, and later they took away boxes with contents including computers and mobile phones.

Stand News also broadcast live on Facebook that national security police were outside the door of the home of its deputy assignment editor, Ronson Chan Long-sing, in Tai Wai.

Officers told Chan they had a warrant to investigate charges of conspiracy to publish seditious material and said he had to stop broadcasting. Chan, who is chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, was then taken from his home to "assist police in their investigation" but not placed under arrest.

Senior superintendent Steve Li Kwai-wah said apart from Chan there were warrants that also gave police power to raid the homes of three other Stand News employees.

Li said too that the HK$61 million frozen assets is the biggest sum handled in a single case by the force's national security department.

It included HK$500,000 cash seized from Stand's office and capital transferred to the company through "secretive channels."

Li said police found the source of the large sum suspicious as Stand did not run on paid subscriptions, did not have many advertisers and had stopped accepting sponsorship.

Much of the HK$61 million, he added, was linked to Stand's new branch in the United Kingdom, established in April, which police believe "was not just for news reporting purposes," and it is being investigated.

Li also said Stand News had published many seditious articles from July last year up to last month.

He said they included commentaries by "bloggers" and news reports, which were published to try to incite hatred against the SAR government and judiciary as well as causing dissatisfaction among citizens. The articles allegedly pushed people to use violence or break laws.

Sources said over 20 articles allegedly involved sedition, including five that police demanded be taken down immediately.

It is understood some were written by self-exiled activists Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Ted Hui Chi-fung or were based on interviews with them.

One Stand News article reported that protesters during the anti-fugitive unrest in 2019 had "disappeared" or been harassed, which Li said were not true.

He called another report about clashes at the Chinese University of Hong Kong "fake news," as it reported that riot police pointed firearms at "yellow helmets" and shouted "burn them all."