Five children’s book authors have been sentenced for “sedition”.

In Hong Kong, repression continues to fall on representatives of the pro-democracy and free-speech camp. On Wednesday, September 7th, the head of the Journalists Syndicate was arrested and five authors of books explaining the democratic movement of children were sentenced on charges of “sedition”.

Agence France-Presse has learned from a police source, confirming information published by local media, that Ronson Chan, president of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, has been arrested for obstructing law enforcement and disturbing public order. Police confirmed the arrest of a 41-year-old man named Chan after he refused to show his ID to officers and behaved in a manner “Uncooperative” Despite the many caveats.

Channel C, the online news agency for Mr Chan, claimed the journalist was taken by police officers while reporting on a homeowners council meeting. Mr. Chan should leave in principle Hong Kong At the end of September after winning a scholarship to attend the six-month Reuters Institute program at Oxford University.

Like many civil society organizations and pro-democracy unions that have now closed, Ronson Chan and the Hong Kong Journalists Association have come under heavy criticism from the media reporting to the Beijing Liaison Office in the city. Often, police interventions follow such mutual accusations.

Massive crackdown on dissent

After one hundred and fifty-six years of British colonization (1841-1997), followed by 25 other countries under Chinese sovereignty, Hong Kong – in less than three years – has lost most of the characteristics of its identity. Despite its unsuccessful democratization process, Hong Kong was until recently the only part of Chinese territory with a solid rule of law, based on independent justice rendered by domestic and foreign judges, political dissent, substantial freedom of worship, and a free, unregulated press. Internet access, world-class universities and open borders.

These traits should continue until at least 2047. During the United Kingdom’s process of returning Hong Kong to China, which ended in 1997, Beijing had already pledged to implement Principle “One country, two systems” for fifty years. But entering the zone, 1^Verse July 2022, in the second half of this period, Hong Kong is clearly transformed. The authorities are now waging a massive crackdown on dissent, after massive, and sometimes violentAnd the 2019 pro-democracy protests.

Fall in the order of freedom of the press

victims of this compulsion, Newspaper Apple Daily And the Online information platform StandNews – which Mr. Chan worked for – both were shut down last year after several of their executives were accused of infringement National Security Law. In 2021, Hong Kong slipped sixty-eight places in the press freedom rating of Reporters Without Borders, Published May 2022, to reach the 148th place in the world. When Reporters Without Borders published its first report in 2002, Hong Kong was ranked 18th.

The Hong Kong Foreign Press Club even waived its Human Rights Journalism Asia Prize this year, citing the Security Act; His decision sparked controversy among many of the member journalists. In addition, the city’s public radio, RTHK, has become increasingly similar to Chinese state media after it was reformed by government order.

“Incitement does not come from words alone.”

In the context of mounting repression, a Hong Kong court on Wednesday found guilty of sedition against five people who produced four illustrated e-books intended to explain the democratic movement in Hong Kong to children. in the book Defenders of the Sheep Village, a group of wolves try to occupy a village of sheep that are defending themselves. In another picture, wolves are depicted as filthy and bringing disease to a sheep village.

All five Hong Kong trade union members were found guilty of “conspiracy to print, publish, sell, offer for sale, distribute, display or reproduce a seditious publication”. Lai Man Ling, Melody Young, Sydney Ng, Samuel Chan and Fung Tsz Ho, all founding members of the Guild of Speech Therapists behind the books, were held for more than a year before being sentenced.

After a two-month trial, Kwok Wai-Ken, a government-appointed district court judge to hear national security issues, wrote in his ruling: “The intent of discord comes not only from words, but from words with forbidden effects intended to resonate in the minds of children.”

During the trial, prosecutors argued that the books contained a ‘Anti-Chinese sentiment’ Aiming at “Inciting readers to hate the Continent’s authorities”. They also said that the books were meant to encourage Hong Kong residents to discriminate against them Mainland Chinese living in Hong Kong. Finally, the conviction is based on the crime of sedition going back to the time when the city was under British control.

The defense argued that the crime of sedition was loosely defined and that each reader should be able to make up their own mind as to what the characters represented in the books. She also warned that such a ruling would further criminalize political criticism and have a chilling effect on society.