Stand News case｜Lee Lap-fung says verdict sets boundaries for media “but does not mean they are clear”; King Wa Fu believes media will be even more cautious in future
《立場》案｜李立峯指判決為傳媒定界線「但唔等於好清晰」 傅景華相信傳媒日後更步步為營
In the case in which Stand News was charged with “conspiracy to publish seditious publications”, former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and former acting editor-in-chief Lam Siu-tung were found guilty on Thursday (29). Judge Kwok Wai-kin ruled that Stand News advocated localism and, amid a heated political atmosphere, published 11 seditious articles with the intention of advocating and inciting the public to oppose the Central Government, among other things. Lee Lap-fung, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s School of Journalism and Communication, said all the articles at issue were strongly critical of the government and regarded as lacking a factual basis. He said their “objective effect was to draw certain boundaries”, but this did not mean the boundaries were clear, as whether an article had a factual basis remained a subjective judgement. The judge’s view that the media should not continue reporting opposing views when public sentiment was surging also differed from the general understanding of the media’s role in reflecting public sentiment. Professor King Wa Fu of the University of Hong Kong’s Centre for Journalism and Media Studies said there was no consensus in academia on Stand News’s political stance and that he “did not quite understand” the basis for the court’s finding that Stand News advocated localism. He also believed that media outlets might have to be more mindful in future of whether their own outlets could be regarded as having a political ideology, and act with greater caution.
《立場新聞》被控「串謀發布煽動刊物」案，前總編輯鍾沛權及前署任總編輯林紹桐，周四（29 日）被裁定罪成。法官郭偉健裁定《立場》主張本土主義，在政治氣氛熾熱之時，發布 11 篇煽動文章，鼓吹和煽惑群眾對抗中央政府等煽動意圖。 中大新聞與傳播學院教授李立峯認為，觸礁的全為強烈批判政府、被視為沒事實基礎的文章，「客觀效果係去劃一啲界線」，但不代表界線清晰，文章何謂有事實基礎，仍是主觀判斷；法官認為傳媒不應在民情洶湧時繼續報道反對意見，亦與一般對傳媒反映民情的理解「有出入」。 港大新聞及傳媒研究中心教授傅景華則關注，學術界對《立場》的政治立場沒定論，「不太明白」法庭裁定《立場》主張本土主義的基礎；他亦相信媒體日後可能要顧及自身媒體會否被視為有政治理念，更步步為營。