By becoming popular and big, the web-based operation had painted a target on itself once Hong Kong’s national security law came into effect last year
To appreciate the political orientation and journalistic standards of a news publication, you can’t just pick out a few articles you like or dislike. Rather you have to follow its coverage over a period. Out of the more popular “yellow” or anti-establishment news groups, I found that Stand News usually adhered more to standard professional practice.
Despite its name and openness about its political ideology, it generally had more respect for facts and accuracy than virtually all the other major media outlets that aligned themselves with the opposition. It was especially so compared to that particularly fruity, now defunct, newspaper, idolised by the West mostly because of the mythology it had created for its jailed founder and owner for his financial and ideological support for the anti-China and secessionist opposition movements in Hong Kong over the decades.
Still, the latest police crackdown that has put Stand News out of business is hardly a surprise. What is unusual is that local authorities had waited almost half a year after they went after the top executives of Apple Daily and forced the paper to shut down during the summer.
But what secured Stand News’ success, or at least popularity with the opposition, also sealed its fate. It came to prominence and even attracted international attention with its coverage of the anti-government protests and riots that gripped Hong Kong in the second half of 2019. It was not the only media outlet that offered uncut live-streamed coverage, but it also offered decent reports and commentaries to give them a context, whether you agreed with them or not. I of course almost never agreed with their op-eds, but as a fellow pundit, I appreciate a well-articulated take more than the stance taken.
The problem with Stand News is that when it became popular and big, it had painted a target on itself once the national security law came into effect last year. A report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found one in four people surveyed in Hong Kong accessed its website on a weekly basis in 2020, compared with one in 10 in 2018. That level of readership would have been the envy of any news provider, whatever its political orientation. Stand News was not a small web-based operation; police have frozen its assets worth HK$61 million.
It appears the latest crackdown is part of the authorities’ ongoing campaign to neutralise the opposition and any groupings that might be perceived as anti-China, anti-government, and/or potentially secessionist. Stand News, after all, had made no bones about where it stood from the start.
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