Hong Kong arrests journalist for alleged 'seditious' acts

Hong Kong police arrested two people on Wednesday for allegedly acting "with seditious intent", authorities said, with local media identifying the pair as an independent journalist and an activist.

While authorities only said the suspects were a 37-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman, local media identified the pair as independent journalist reporter Tang Ho-wing and activist Lee Ying-chi.

Officers wearing vests labelled "NSD" -- for the National Security Department -- led Tang in handcuffs to a van from a residential building, images published by local media showed.

Tang's detention marks the first publicly known time a journalist has been arrested for sedition under Hong Kong's homegrown security law, which was passed in 2024 following a separate law imposed by Beijing, according to the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA).

The arrests were part of a series of operations linked to an incident on August 31 outside Prince Edward metro station, police said in a statement.

That evening, police discovered several people standing outside the station "holding bouquets and shouting seditious slogans", the statement said.

Six others were also arrested over the same offence earlier this month and have since been released on bail, it said.

The statement added that some individuals at the scene "were suspected of spreading false information and attacking ... government with lies" and smear the police in an attempt to incite hatred against authorities.

Tang had posted a video on social media from outside the station showing activists shouting "August 31".

On August 31, 2019, as Hong Kong was in the midst of months-long, huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests, clashes between police and protesters erupted in multiple districts.

According to television footage from that day, riot police entered Prince Edward station and arrested some protesters.

Critics alleged that officers used batons and pepper spray to indiscriminately attack commuters, leading to some deaths, but the police denied these claims.

On the day every year since then, activists overseas have continued to hold rallies or protests to mark the anniversary.

Police said in their statement Wednesday the incident in 2019 was unfounded, accusing it of being a manipulated "lie".

- 'Reporting is not sedition' -

The duo arrested on Wednesday were detained for investigation under a homegrown national security law passed in 2024, which came in addition to a law imposed by Beijing after the 2019 protests.

If convicted, they could face up to seven years in prison.

Tang, who runs the online media outlet Boom News, is known for his big hair and has about 200,000 followers across multiple platforms.

"If journalists can be arrested merely for reporting on-site or because their coverage diverges from the official narrative, all frontline reporters will inevitably bear the same risks when covering public events in the future," the HKJA press union said in a statement.

"Reporting is not sedition," Committee to Protect Journalists' Asia-Pacific director Beh Lih Yi said of the arrest of Tang, urging authorities "must release him immediately and stop intimidating journalists for doing their jobs".

Reporters Without Borders also condemned the arrest as "the latest sign of the criminalisation of journalism" in the Chinese city.

As of September 1, authorities had arrested 416 people for various national security crimes, with 186 of them convicted.