A Hong Kong court convicted former Stand News editors Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam in a sedition case, seen as a test for media freedom in the city. Arrested in December 2021, they pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to publish seditious content. This trial is the first media-related case since Hong Kong’s 1997 return to Chinese rule. Stand News, critical of the government, was shut down amid a crackdown on dissent following 2019 pro-democracy protests. The editors face up to two years in prison and a fine under a colonial-era sedition law.