Following in the footsteps of mainland China, the administration in Hong Kong has shut down Stand News, the most prominent pro-democracy publication that had thus far survived the calculated onslaught on democracy and freedom of expression. Swiftly enough, the United Nations and Germany have condemned Wednesday’s attack on press freedom. The raid raises concerns about free expression in Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with the promise that its freedoms, including a free press, would be protected.

The UN Human Rights Office said it was alarmed at the “extremely rapid closing of the civic space and outlets for Hong Kong’s civil society to speak and express themselves freely”. Stand News, set up in 2014 as a non-profit organisation, was the most prominent pro-democracy publication in Hong Kong after a national security investigation this year led to the closure of jailed tycoon Jimmy Lai’s Apple Daily tabloid. “Stand News is now stopping operations,” the publication said on Facebook, adding all employees had been dismissed. Sedition is not among the offences listed under a sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing in June 2020.

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It punishes terrorism, collusion with foreign forces, subversion, and secession with possible life imprisonment. But recent court judgments have enabled the authorities to use powers conferred by the new legislation to deploy rarely used colonial era laws covering sedition. Stand News was accused of publishing news and comments inciting hatred against the authorities.

Some of the articles about those who went missing during the city’s 2019 pro-democracy unrest or women who were sexually harassed were binned as “factually baseless” and “malicious”. Some articles are said to have claimed that the Communist Party extended its powers through the city’s independent courts. Police seized assets worth HK$61 million ($7.82 million) as well as computers, phones, and journalistic materials.

“We are not targeting reporters. We are targeting national security offences,” said Steve Li, the head of the national security department. The Stand News office was raided, and three men and four women were arrested on suspicion of “conspiracy to publish seditious publications”. Wednesday’s assault on press freedom has had its echo in distant Germany and the rights office of the United Nations in Geneva. “From our point of view, the events illustrate anew that there is a steady erosion of pluralism, freedom of opinion and freedom of the press in Hong Kong, especially since this national security law came into force,” a spokesperson for the foreign ministry said.

The UN rights office said it was “alarmed by the continued crackdown on civic space” in Hong Kong. It is bound by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and has a legal obligation to respect the rights to freedom of information, expression and association, as well as to guarantee due process,” it said in a statement. Going by precedent, the protests are likely to be ineffectual, and Beijing clearly knows this.