A Hong Kong court convicted two journalists of sedition Thursday based on their coverage of the Chinese pro-democracy movement, sparking international condemnation, The Associated Press reported.

Former top editors of Stand News Chung Pui-keun and Patrick Lam will face up to two years in prison over stories they published between 2020 and 2021 that were written by pro-democracy activists and journalists, the AP reported. Global observers widely viewed the case as an indicator of the future of press freedom in Hong Kong as this was the first case involving media since it returned to Chinese rule in 1997 and because China increased its control over the city in 2020 with a controversial national security law that allowed the extradition of dissidents to the mainland.

“The conviction of Stand News editors for sedition is a direct attack on media freedom and undermines Hong Kong’s once-proud international reputation for openness,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on X following News of the conviction. “We urge Beijing and Hong Kong authorities to restore and uphold rights guaranteed in the Basic Law.”

Stand News is a now-shuttered nonprofit publication that was generally pro-democracy, according to the Hong Kong Free Press. Hong Kong residents rated it among the most credible online publications in a survey conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2019.

The outlet shut down after police raided its office and arrested its leaders in 2021, the Hong Kong Free Press reported.

Prosecutors argued that Pui-keun and Lam pushed “illegal ideologies” and engaged in sedition against the Chinese government, according to the AP. Judge Kwok Wai-kin, who oversaw the case, said that Stand News had smeared the Chinese government and stated that convicting journalists was appropriate “when speech, in the relevant context, is deemed to have caused potential damage to national security and intends to seriously undermine the authority of the Chinese central government or the Hong Kong government.”

“Journalism is not a crime,” United Kingdom Indo-Pacific minister Catherine West wrote on X. “Free media is essential if societies [and] economies are to prosper. But HK has dropped from 18 to 135 in [the] World Press Freedom Index since 2002.”

The United Kingdom previously had jurisdiction over Hong Kong as part of a 99-year-long lease, handing the city back to the People’s Republic of China in 1997. Before the British government relinquished control of Hong Kong, China promised to allow the city to function with considerable political autonomy, though the Chinese Communist Party has since tightened its grip, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Beijing altered Hong Kong’s election system in 2021 by mandating that only “patriots” who respect the Chinese Communist Party could run for office, the Hong Kong Free Press reported. Just one candidate, John Lee, was allowed to run for chief executive in the city’s 2022 election,

Lee enacted reforms in 2023, reducing the number of directly elected representatives in the city’s legislature from 90% to 20%, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The city’s chief executive, or its electoral college, became responsible for appointing lawmakers after the changes.

In addition to the 2020 national security law, Hong Kong residents have seen their voting rights eroded, free speech limited and dozens of activists and lawmakers have been arrested, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Lawmakers in the city passed a law in March allowing the government to detain suspects for up to 16 days without charging them and allowing for trials to be held behind closed doors, the BBC reported.

Hong Kong’s Basic Law, the constitution that was enacted after the city was handed over to China, is supposed to entitle Hongkongers to a free press, free expression, the right to assemble and freedom of religion, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

China’s Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong hit back against Western criticisms, arguing that the United States and its European allies often turn a blind eye to their purported records of media suppression and that they use “press freedom” as a political tool to weaken China internally.

“They reported the truth, they defended press freedom,” Hong Kong resident Kevin Ng, who was once a reader of Stand News, told the AP.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Flickr/State Department photo/ Public Domain)