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Hong Kong Police arrest veteran journalist on sedition charges

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Hong Kong Police arrest veteran journalist on sedition charges

Hong Kong police arrested veteran journalist Alvin Au on sedition charges Monday, according to local media reports, marking the latest use of an archaic colonial-era law to crack down on press freedom. File Photo by Miguel Candela/EPA-EFE 

April 11 (UPI) — Hong Kong authorities arrested journalist Allan Au on sedition charges Monday, local media reported, continuing the use of an archaic colonial-era law in an ongoing crackdown on freedom of expression in the semi-autonomous city.

Hong Kong Police said in a statement that its national security department “arrested a 54-year-old man in Kwai Chung today for conspiracy to publish seditious publication.”

Multiple local media outlets identified the man as Au, a veteran journalist who worked as a producer for TVB News and was a columnist for multiple outlets including the shuttered pro-democracy news site Stand News.

Au was fired as host of a call-in radio show on public broadcaster RTHK in June amid a government-imposed editorial shakeup. He is also a teaching consultant at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s journalism school.

The arrest was made in connection to articles Au published in Stand News, according to reports in Sing Tao and HK01.

The police said he is being held for questioning and that an investigation may lead to further arrests.

Stand News was raided by police in December and shut down after several individuals, including former chief editor Chung Pui-kuen and acting chief editor Patrick Lam, were arrested on sedition charges. Popstar and activist Denise Ho, one of the leading faces of a pro-democracy movement that culminated in months of street protests in 2019, was also charged with sedition for her role as a board member of Stand News.

Hong Kong’s sedition laws were introduced in the early 20th century under British rule and hadn’t been applied since the 1970s, but authorities turned to them in the fall of 2020 as part of a sweeping crackdown on free speech and the city’s independent press.

Last week, Hong Kong police arrested six people, including a citizen journalist and a trade union leader, on sedition charges for allegedly creating a “nuisance” during court hearings.

The law is being used in addition to the sweeping national security law that was imposed by Beijing in June 2020. Roughly 190 people have since been arrested under the national security or sedition laws.

In addition to Stand News, Hong Kong’s main pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily was forced to close in June 2021, while independent news portal Citizen News ceased operations in early January.

The United States and 20 other nations issued a statement in February condemning the crackdown on press freedom in the former British colony.

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