FORCED INTO SILENCE

Police Raid Shuts Down One of Hong Kong’s Last Pro-Democracy Sites

Some 200 officers stormed the Stand News offices to arrest three men and four women.

Stand News, the biggest of the few surviving pro-democracy news sites in Hong Kong, has been forced to shut down after cops raided its office and arrested seven staff on suspected “seditious publication” offenses. According to Reuters, some 200 officers stormed the Stand News offices Wednesday to arrest three men and four women. They haven’t been officially identified, but media named six of them as ex-democratic legislator Margaret Ng, pop star Denise Ho, former chief editor Chung Pui-kuen, acting chief editor Patrick Lam, Chow Tat-chi and Christine Fang. “Stand News is now stopping operations,” Stand News wrote on Facebook after the raid, adding that all employees had been terminated. The head of a police national security department, Steve Li, said Wednesday: “We are not targeting reporters. We are targeting national security offenses.”