Two former editors of the now-defunct Stand News were on Thursday given jail sentences for sedition, but one of them walked free from the District Court due to time spent on remand and poor health.

Former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and ex-acting chief editor Patrick Lam were convicted last month of conspiring to publish and reproduce seditious publications between 2020 and 2021.

They were the first journalists to be convicted of sedition since Hong Kong's return to the motherland in 1997.

Stand News' parent company, Best Pencil Limited, was also found guilty of the same offence.

Before sentencing, defence counsel Audrey Eu argued the pair should be released immediately, saying they had each spent up to 11 months on remand before securing bail.

But District Judge Kwok Wai-kin rejected her plea.

He said the defendants were not doing "genuine journalistic work", and rather took part in the "so-called resistance" against the government.

The judge had earlier ruled that 11 of the 17 publications submitted by the prosecution were seditious.

"Based on the fact that Stand News had about 1.6 million followers, the court believes that the harm caused by these inciting articles … must be quite serious," Kwok said.

He also rejected the defence's contention that the journalists were unaware of what could - and could not - be reported, and that they broke the law unknowingly.

The sedition law took effect in 1938, he pointed out, so there were ample overseas legal cases that media practitioners could look up as reference.

Kwok eventually sentenced Chung to 21 months in prison.

He also considered a 14-month term for Lam, but ordered his immediate release after considering his time served on remand and the need for regular hospital visits.

The court had heard that Lam's kidneys were down to 30 percent of normal function.

"The court believes that ordering [Lam] to go to prison may pose danger to his life … Therefore, I further reduce his sentence to one that will allow him to be released immediately," Kwok said.

Lam, donning a surgical mask, left the court without speaking to the media.

The judge also fined Stand News' parent company HK$5,000.

Founded in 2014, the online news outlet shut down in December 2021 after police raided its office and froze its assets.

Last updated: 2024-09-26 HKT 21:36