Hong Kong’s appeal court lowered the bar for sedition convictions on Thursday in a ruling expected to affect ongoing trials of news outlets and the government’s new national security law.
The sedition offence, formerly a little-used relic of Hong Kong’s British colonial era, was dusted off as Beijing launched a crackdown on dissent in the financial hub following 2019’s democracy protests.
It was used to convict radio DJ and democracy activist Tam Tak-chi in 2022 in the first sedition trial since the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China. He was sentenced to 40 months in jail for over 11 offences, including seven counts of “uttering seditious words”.
Judges rejected Tam’s appeal Thursday, ruling it was unnecessary to prove intention to incite violence to convict a defendant of sedition.
“Modern experiences show that seditious acts or activities endangering national security now take many diversified forms,” they said in a written judgment.
“(To) effectively respond to seditious acts or activities endangering national security, seditious intention has to be broadly framed to encompass a myriad of situations.”
Thursday’s ruling will have binding effects on lower courts in similar cases, including the ongoing trials of two shuttered news outlets, Stand News and Apple Daily, for “seditious publications”.
It will also serve as a judicial benchmark as the government drafts its own national security law — which will co-exist alongside the law Beijing imposed in 2020 — with a view to raise the penalty for sedition offences.
During the national security law’s public consultation last month, authorities suggested expanding “seditious intention” to cover inducing disaffection against China’s Communist leadership and socialist system, as well as Beijing’s apparatuses in Hong Kong.
Thursday’s decision also diverges from a ruling made in October by Britain’s Privy Council — a top authority in the common law world.
In a case related to the Sedition Act of Commonwealth member Trinidad and Tobago, the Privy Council decided that the “true interpretation” of sedition must have “an intention to incite violence or disorder”.
Hong Kong High Court Chief Justice Jeremy Poon said Thursday the court “has reservations” on whether the Privy Council ruling is applicable.
“Seditious intention in any given criminal code must be interpreted by reference to the specific legal and social landscape in which it exists,” he said.
Tam, who took part in Hong Kong’s massive and at times violent democracy protests that kicked off in 2019, is also among a group of 47 activists accused of subversion in the city’s largest national security case.
