Canadian Denise Ho launched on bail after Hong Kong police raid Stand Information – Nationwide

Canadian Denise Ho was launched on bail in Hong Kong Thursday after being arrested following a police raid on a pro-democracy information outlet.

Ho, a pop star and activist who serves as a board member of Stand Information, was launched on bail pending additional investigation, Reuters and The Related Press report. Ho shouldn’t be presently going through any prices, however is because of report back to police in late March, authorities mentioned.

In the meantime, a Hong Kong courtroom denied bail to 2 former senior editors charged with conspiring to publish seditious supplies at Stand Information.

Roughly 200 officers raided the workplace of the web publication on Wednesday, freezing its property and arresting seven present and former senior editors and former board members. The transfer has been seen as the newest crackdown on town’s press.

Hong Kong chief Carrie Lam defended the raid, telling reporters that “inciting different folks … couldn’t be condoned underneath the guise of reports reporting.”

Stand Information mentioned Wednesday that it has ceased operations and has laid off all its employees.

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Advocates and a few western governments criticized the raid and arrests as an indication of additional erosion of press freedoms since China imposed a wide-ranging nationwide safety legislation within the former British colony final yr.

Mélanie Joly, Canada’s international affairs minister, mentioned in a collection of tweets Wednesday that the federal government is “deeply involved” by the raid and arrests.

“Freedom of media and expression stay cornerstones of democracy and important to the safety of human rights and elementary freedoms. We are going to proceed to talk out and denounce violations of those freedoms, in partnership with our worldwide allies,” she tweeted.

“Our consular officers are engaged and stand prepared to supply help on the bottom. We’re monitoring the scenario very carefully.”

International Information has reached out to International Affairs Canada for remark.

In accordance with a cost sheet considered by The Related Press, nationwide safety police filed one rely every of conspiracy to publish a seditious publication in opposition to Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, former editors at Stand Information. Police additionally mentioned they’d prosecute the corporate for sedition.

If convicted, they may withstand two years in jail and be fined as much as 5,000 Hong Kong {dollars} ($819).

The seven have been arrested on Wednesday underneath against the law ordinance that stems from Hong Kong’s days as a British colony earlier than 1997, when it was returned to China with a promise from Beijing it could maintain democratic freedoms for 50 years.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken criticized the arrests, saying Chinese language and native authorities are undermining Hong Kong’s “credibility and viability.”

“A assured authorities that’s unafraid of the reality embraces a free press,” he mentioned.

Jenny Kwan, the New Democrat MP for Vancouver East who was born and raised in Hong Kong, informed The Canadian Press the arrests present freedoms and human rights within the area are being ignored by the ruling Communist Occasion.

“With the information of the current search of Stand Information’ workplace and the arrest of its appearing editor-in-chief Shiu-tung Lam, former editor-in-chief Pui-kuen Chung, former board members Margaret Ng, Denise Wan-see Ho, Tai-chi Chow and Christine Meng-sang Fang, it clearly illustrates that Hong Kong has became a police state,” she mentioned.

Hong Kong’s authorities has denied focusing on the media and curbing its freedoms and mentioned the motion in opposition to Stand Information was geared toward seditious exercise, not the suppression of journalism.

— with recordsdata from Reuters, The Related Press and The Canadian Press