A Hong Kong judge has sentenced a former editor of a shuttered pro-democracy news publication to 21 months in prison in a landmark case amid a security crackdown in the China-ruled city.

Former Stand News editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen, 55, was convicted on Thursday alongside his colleague, former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam, 36, but the latter was freed after his sentence was reduced because of ill health and time already served in custody.

The pair are the first journalists convicted under a colonial-era sedition law since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Their Chinese-language news outlet that was raided and shut down in December 2021 was one of the last in Hong Kong that criticised authorities as China imposed a crackdown on dissidents following pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Last month, the court found Chung and Lam guilty of conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious materials, along with Best Pencil (Hong Kong) Ltd, Stand News’s holding company.

They faced up to two years in prison and a fine of 5,000 Hong Kong dollars (about $640).

The conviction of Stand News editors in August drew swift global outcry, with the United States denouncing it as “a direct attack on media freedom”.

The European Union called on Hong Kong to “stop prosecuting journalists”.

Judge Kwok Wai-kin began the sentencing hearing two hours after the scheduled time on Thursday.

The journalists’ lawyer, Audrey Eu, requested a sentence mitigation, saying Lam had been diagnosed with a rare disease and she was concerned that he could not be treated by the hospital handling his case if he were sent to jail again.

She argued that they be sentenced to up to time served, saying their case was different because they were journalists whose duties were to report various people’s views.

Patrick Lam, former acting chief editor of Stand News, leaves the District Court in Hong Kong [Tyrone Siu/Reuters]

The pair were imprisoned for nearly a year after their arrests before being released on bail in late 2022.

In his sentencing, Kwok said the defendants were not genuine journalists but had participated in the territory’s resistance movement.

Kwok wrote in his verdict in August that Stand News had become a tool for smearing the Beijing and Hong Kong governments during the 2019 protests.

He ruled that 11 articles published under the defendants’ leadership carried seditious intent.

Kwok said Lam and Chung were aware of and agreed with the seditious intent, and that they made Stand News available as a platform to incite hatred against the two governments and the judiciary.

Their lawyer told the court that the articles in question represented only a small portion of what Stand News had published.

The defendants also stressed their journalistic mission in their mitigation letters.

Like ‘attending a funeral’

On Thursday morning, dozens of people waited in line to secure a seat in the courtroom. Former Stand News reader Andrew Wong said he wanted to attend the hearing to show his support, though he felt it was like “attending a funeral”.

Wong, who works in a nongovernmental organisation, said he expected the convictions last month, but still felt “a sense that we’ve passed a point of no return” when he heard the verdict.

“Everything we had in the past is gone,” he said.

Their trial, which began in October 2022, lasted about 50 days. The verdict was postponed several times for reasons including a wait for an appeal outcome in another landmark sedition case.

Hong Kong was ranked 135 of 180 territories in Reporters Without Borders’ latest World Press Freedom Index, down from 80 in 2021, and 18 in 2002.

Self-censorship has also become more common during the political crackdown on dissent following the 2019 protests, with increased reports of harassment against journalists in recent months.

In March, the city government enacted another new security law that raised concerns about further curtailment of press freedom.