Hong Kong court lowers bar for sedition convictions

HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s appeal court lowered the bar for sedition convictions yesterday in a ruling expected to affect ongoing trials of news outlets and the government’s new national security law.

The sedition offence, formerly a little-used relic of Hong Kong’s British colonial era, was dusted off as Beijing launched a crackdown on dissent in the financial hub following 2019’s democracy protests.

It was used to convict radio DJ and democracy activist Tam Takchi in 2022 in the first sedition trial since the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China. He was sentenced to 40 months in jail for over 11 offences, including seven counts of “uttering seditious words”.

Judges rejected Tam’s appeal Thursday, ruling it was unnecessary to prove intention to incite violence to convict a defendant of sedition.

“Modern experiences show that seditious acts or activities endangering national security now take many diversified forms,” they said in a written judgment.

“(To) effectively respond to seditious acts or activities endangering national security, seditious intention has to be broadly framed to encompass a myriad of situations.”

Thursday’s ruling will have binding effects on lower courts in similar cases, including the ongoing trials of two shuttered news outlets, Stand News and Apple Daily, for “seditious publications”.

It will also serve as a judicial benchmark as the government drafts its own national security law – which will co-exist alongside the law Beijing imposed in 2020 – with a view to raise the penalty for sedition offences.

During the national security law’s public consultation last month, authorities suggested expanding “seditious intention” to cover inducing disaffection against China’s Communist leadership and socialist system, as well as Beijing’s apparatuses in Hong Kong.

Thursday’s decision also diverges from a ruling made in October by Britain’s Privy Council – a top authority in the common law world.