Security minister Chris Tang said on Saturday that anti-China politicians should stop misleading the public by saying that two newsmen were prosecuted for practising journalism.

He was commenting on the sentencing of two former editors of the now-defunct Stand News this week on sedition charges.

Former chief editor Chung Pui-kuen was sent back to jail after receiving a 21-month term, and the ex-acting chief editor, Patrick Lam, was freed due to time spent on remand and poor health.

Tang said the Journalists Association and politicians and groups he accused of being anti-China, namely the last colonial Hong Kong governor Chris Patten and Amnesty International, are wrong about the matter.

He rejected their claims that the press is being targeted.

"I want to stress again, the court judgment clearly stated that the defendants were not really doing journalistic work. They used Stand News as a tool to smear the government. They incited hatred based on fake information," Tang said after attending a Fire Services Department event celebrating the 75th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.

"I hope these anti-China politicians and groups can stop using tricks to mislead the Hong Kong public. The public can see this very clearly."

Tang also noted that two media groups, the Federation of Journalists and the Association of Media Veterans, had expressed support for the court sentence.

He stressed that the sharpest of criticism of the government is fine so long as they're based on facts, saying laws in Hong Kong protect freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

"But as the court judgment noted clearly, the media are obliged to follow and execute some special duties and responsibilities under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and that includes protecting our national security," Tang said.

Overnight, the Commissioner's Office of the Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong hit out at the US Consulate in Hong Kong and Macau and some members of Congress, saying they should stop interfering in China's internal affairs and Hong Kong matters.

The consulate said the sentencing of the editors was "a direct attack on press freedom".