A Hong Kong court has found two editors of the now-defunct Stand News media outlet guilty of conspiring to publish seditious articles, in a case that has drawn international scrutiny amid a security crackdown in the China-ruled city.

The outlet's parent company Best Pencil and its two editors Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam were all charged with conspiracy to publish seditious publications in connection with 17 news articles and commentaries between July 2020 and December 2021.

The articles deemed seditious by the court included commentaries written by exiled activists Nathan Law and Sunny Cheung, veteran journalist Allan Au, jailed former Apple Daily associate publisher and Chung's wife Chan Pui-man.

Editors accused of promoting 'illegal' ideologies during 57-day trial

Chung and Lam pleaded not guilty, and so a 57-day trial began in October 2022.

Government prosecutor Laura Ng said Stand News had acted as a political platform to promote "illegal" ideologies and incited readers' hatred against the Chinese and Hong Kong governments.

Chung, who edited or authorised most of the articles that the court found to be seditious, chose to testify in court. He was in the witness box for 36 days.

He insisted Stand News had only "recorded the facts and reported the truth", simply seeking to reflect a spectrum of voices including pro-democracy advocates.

Chung stressed that the organisation upheld the principle of publishing every article they received to "showcase the greatest extent of freedom of speech", as long as these articles did not incite violence, adversely affect the public or cause defamation.

Lam did not testify in court, but sent a mitigation letter instead.

"The key to this case is press freedom and freedom of speech," he wrote.

"Freedom of speech should not be restricted on the grounds of eradicating dangerous ideas, but rather it should be used to eradicate dangerous ideas.

District Court Judge Kwok Wai-kin handed down the editors' verdict on Thursday, with only Chung present. He found that 11 of the 17 articles in question carried seditious intent.

He said the articles smeared national security law, Hong Kong's crime ordinance, law enforcement and prosecution procedures.

"When speech is assessed as having seditious intent, the relevant actual circumstances must have been taken into consideration, being viewed as causing potential damage to national security, [and] must be stopped," wrote Judge Kwok.

"The line [Stand News] took was to support and promote Hong Kong local autonomy.

"It even became a tool to smear and vilify the Central Authorities [Beijing] and the [Hong Kong] SAR government."

The decision marked the first for sedition against any journalist or editor since Hong Kong's handover from Britain to China in 1997.

Chung and Lam could be jailed for up to two years and fined up to 5,000 Hong Kong dollars ($940) when they are sentenced on September 26.

Verdict represents 'new reality' for Hong Kong journalists

Critics, including the US government, say the case reflects deteriorating media freedoms under a years-long national security crackdown in the China-ruled city.

Former Hong Kong politician Ted Hui, who now lives in Adelaide, said the outcome was expected but would have a chilling effect.

"If expressing different ideas from the government would become a smear … that means the Hong Kong regime is imposing a red line," he said.

"If you cross that red line, interviewing people, criticising governments … It's not tolerated anymore in Hong Kong.

Stand News was one of the city's last media outlets that openly criticised the government amid a crackdown on dissent that followed massive pro-democracy protests in 2019.

It was shut down just months after the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, whose jailed founder Jimmy Lai is fighting collusion charges under a sweeping national security law enacted in 2020.

The sedition offence used to charge Chung and Lam has its roots in British colonial rule. It was unused for decades until 2020, when authorities started deploying it in cases against government critics.

The prosecution presented 17 articles published in 2020 and 2021 in their case — including features about Mr Hui and other pro-democracy former politicians like Nathan Law.

"It's very ridiculous that they used the interview with me as one of the evidence because … I was generally talking about how Hong Kongers, now they have moved to different parts of the world, should reunite and be organised to fight back for our freedom," Mr Hui said.

"In Western civilisations, these kind of comments wouldn't be criminalised at all, it should be part of free speech. But in Hong Kong, this is criminalised."

In a statement, Hong Kong Media Overseas said the verdict severely undermined the judiciary's independence.

"If any lingering doubt still exists about the Hong Kong government's determination to criminalise independent journalism, it was dispelled today," they said.

"The reality is that the defendants have been convicted for doing no more than carrying out normal journalistic work which had been legal in Hong Kong."

Officials from various consulates — including the United States, Britain, France, European Union, and Australia — were also in attendance during the ruling.

The United States has repeatedly condemned the prosecutions of journalists in Hong Kong, saying that the case against the Stand News editors "creates a chilling effect on others in the press and media".

Hong Kong was ranked 135 out of 180 territories in Reporters Without Borders' latest World Press Freedom Index, down from 80 in 2021.

Self-censorship has also become more prominent during the political crackdown on dissent.

In March, the city government enacted another new security law that many journalists worried it could further curtail press freedom.

The Hong Kong government insists the city still enjoys press freedom, as guaranteed by its mini-constitution.