The Western media, and officials and organizations from the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, have wasted no time in accusing the Hong Kong authorities of eroding press freedom after two former chief editors of the now-defunct online news outlet, Stand News, were found guilty of conspiring to publish seditious articles.

This was yet another ill-advised attempt by Western China-bashers to discredit Hong Kong, which only serves to expose their hypocrisy on the matter of press freedom.

Anyone who had browsed Stand News’ website before it was shut down in 2021 should have a clear idea of its true colors under the guise of press freedom. Along with the now-defunct Apple Daily, Stand News was one of the major instigators of Hong Kong’s social unrest and the riots that started in June 2019, and the 11 articles deemed seditious by the court contained myriad lies, misinformation and baseless attacks on China’s central government and the Hong Kong Special Administrative region’s police and justice system, as well as attempts to glorify the rioters.

As the court has found, Stand News didn’t even pretend to be an impartial news outlet; instead it advocated “localism”, incited hatred toward the Chinese mainland and supported the riots that threatened to destroy Hong Kong’s law and order.

Suffice it to say, the legal actions taken against Stand News and its two editors were fully justified and long overdue. Like any other civil right, press freedom is protected in Hong Kong, as enshrined in the Basic Law, but Stand News’ approach went far beyond what can be considered “regular journalism”. One editorial, dated July 1, 2020 — the day after the National Security Law for Hong Kong came into effect — made outlandish claims about Hong Kong’s “loss of freedom” even though the city continued to maintain its robust rule of law.

The piece went on to urge rioters to “unite and march against gunfire”, when in fact it was the rioters who had attacked Hong Kong’s legislature, the police and innocent civilians. The article was more of an extremist political pamphlet than a piece of journalistic work, and thus the people behind it should be treated not as journalists but as political extremists.

Ironically, Western governments’ stringent standards on press freedom for Hong Kong do not apply to themselves. Earlier last month, the UK witnessed widespread riots by far-right activists following a torrent of online misinformation. On Aug 8, the UK Crown Prosecution Service tweeted on X (formerly Twitter): “Think before you post! Content that incites violence or hatred isn’t just harmful — it can be illegal. The CPS takes online violence seriously and will prosecute when the legal test is met. Remind those close to you to share responsibly or face the consequences.”

This was re-tweeted by the official UK government account, and neither the US nor the EU showed the slightest concern over it. Had the HKSAR government released similar statements on Twitter or Facebook during Hong Kong’s 2019 riots, which were no less violent or extreme than the UK riots, I’m certain its accounts would have been immediately suspended and the Western media would have been flooded with articles about “China’s overseas coercion and oppression”. In fact, a number of social media accounts that condemned the riots in Hong Kong and called for an end to violence back then were banned by Twitter and Facebook, while accounts and posts associated with rioters continued to spread hate speech and incite violence.

The Stand News ruling made a clear distinction between legitimate journalism and seditious publications; thus, it serves to further enhance Hong Kong’s rule of law and press freedom

Besides online posters, social media platforms themselves have also been targeted by Western governments. The EU launched an investigation into X last December, and this July charged it with failing to respect EU social media laws by allowing the spread of misinformation, hate speech and other malicious content.

Such acts usually involve the expression of far-right sentiments on topics like white supremacy and anti-immigration, as well as the spreading of conspiracy theories and attacks against liberal governments, all of which are reminiscent of the seditious rhetoric used by the likes of Stand News during Hong Kong’s social unrest. Just as far-right extremists in the West pinned the blame for their problems on immigrants and “big liberal government”, the likes of Stand News blamed mainland residents and Beijing for Hong Kong’s problems. Both reveled in spreading unsubstantiated information and conspiracy theories that sought to discredit what they perceived to be the “evil establishment”, and both rarely refrained from threatening to resort to violence.

Considering the striking resemblance between far-right extremist media in the West and anti-China media like Stand News in Hong Kong, the double standards displayed by the US, the UK and the EU in branding the former as criminals while promoting the latter as “champions of press freedom” could not be more blatant. The Stand News ruling had nothing to do with press freedom but was the lawful prosecution of seditious instigators who had caused great harm to Hong Kong through the malicious use of the media; and the attacks by Western governments on the Stand News ruling have nothing to do with press freedom either: They are simply a shameless ploy to defame China.

The Stand News ruling made a clear distinction between legitimate journalism and seditious publications; thus, it serves to further enhance Hong Kong’s rule of law and press freedom. Western politicians should stop irrationally smearing Hong Kong and consider how to better protect press freedom in their own countries.  

The author is a political analyst at the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.