Hong Kong editors who face prison in sedition case told court about journalistic ideals

HONG KONG (AP) -- Two former top editors of Hong Kong's defunct online media Stand News will learn their sentences Thursday after a landmark sedition verdict. They were the first journalists to be found guilty of conspiring to publish seditious content since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. The verdict for Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam last month was widely seen as a barometer for Hong Kong's future of media freedoms. The judge said the pair provided Stand News as a publication platform to incite hatred against Beijing or the Hong Kong government. In their mitigation letters, they stressed the importance of independent journalism.