Thread by @XinqiSu

#DEVELOPING Chung Pui-kuen, founding chief editor of #StandNews began to take the witness stand this morning as defense started their case.

A few points from Chung's account:

* The 3 founders of #StandNews chose to surrender their rights to benefits and to sell the company shares to a trust fund in order to minimize impacts on the news company in case any of them were under threats or pressure - a lesson learned from the shuttering of House News.

* #StandNews registered with the regulator of newspapers and magazines the day after HK gov announced to allow online media to join official pressers etc in 2017 because #StandNews wanted to provide more comprehensive coverage and better discharge duty to supervise the authority.

* Chung confirmed that he was "the only final decision maker" in terms of editorial mattes of #StandNews. Even for content eg social media posts that was published before he approved, he would demand a removal / revision if he found it problematic after publication.

* Chung and another founding editor Yu Ka-fai suspended their own salaries for about half year from Sep 2016 in order to ease #StandNews financial crunch. Asked why he continued to work without being paid, Chung said, "urgh, because, urgh, because I like it."

* Chung said #StandNews did not alter its editorial principles or tilted to please readers or attract hit rates even when the company's finance was rather tight. "Although there are ways and I know how to do it...I don't think we ever did it for money".

* Chung said he usually allowed all articles from #StandNews bloggers as long as they were "genuinely discussing some issues and could justify themselves", because Chung wanted to "realise a replete level of speech freedom".

* In the 2nd half of the morning session, Chung said #StandNews had all along wanted to be a media platform that could facilitate the civil society by covering various public topics, even when those topics eg LGBTQ rights and climate change, were not as popular as political news.

* Chung said #StandNews wouldn't choose or filter articles contributed by members of the public or their bloggers according to readers' preference. He said the greatest drop of membership #StandNews suffered was when they published many articles the criticized Donald Trump.

* "From the very beginning to the very end, we did not change our production of content due to temporary pressure or reaction from the readers. We adhered to some fundamental principles...one of the key mission of this platform is to defend freedom of speech."

* In response to the first surge of public donation in July 2019, which the prosecution highlighted, Chung said he could only guess one of the reasons to be their outstanding live coverage of several important incidents eg protesters breaking into LegCo and the Yuen Long attack

Note: Gwyneth Ho @KwaiLamHo the leading journalist covering both events live - for the second one exclusively - has been in custody for nearly 2 years as one of the 47 activists charged of "conspiracy to subversion" over an unofficial primaries.

* In response to the allegation that #StandNews set up public donation scheme in order to attract like-minded people, Chung said they never surveyed political preferences of their readers. "If you say they all support press freedom and free speech, then maybe yes".

* In response to the allegation that #StandNews set up its UK branch in late 2020 and early 2021 in order to provide a platform for the "opposition radicals" like @nathanlawkc and @tedhuichifung to promote their "unlawful ideas", Chung refuted and said..

..."People like us working in the press and media, we are actually rather innocent and simple. We are very motivated to cover people and events that concern the public and public interest. Those people mentioned in the prosecution's opening are apparent of this category...

...Their words and deeds in and out of Hong Kong were given much attention as some of them used to be legislators of this city. So their propositions must concern major public interest. So interviewing them is basically what news outlets would like to do."

* Chung also explained that he had the idea of setting up a UK bureau because he saw HKers, including some senior journalists, were leaving HK for the UK, so he believed there would be a market. Moreover, a bureau in UK would be able to cover news when Hong Kong was asleep.

* Chung said he believed #StandNews had enjoyed "100% editorial freedom" because all company directors, except himself and another former editor, would not interfere with editorial matters and decisions.

* Chung's wife Chan Pui-man was the associate publisher of #AppleDaily and has been in custody due to the newspaper's #NSL case. Chung said he and his wife were "competitors" so they would not talk about their own work. But #StandNews had Chan as a blogger because ...

..."Although I am her husband, but objectively speaking, I think her articles were well written with both sense and reason," Chung said.

* Chung the three leading values/principles for him were,f first of all, free speech - "I would not ask myself why I should publish this, instead I would ask why I should not"; secondly, keep the power in check; thirdly, give a voice to minorities, the powerless and the marginal.

* When deciding whether to publish an article, Chung said some fundamental principles he would consider were: 1) whether it would lead to immediate violence; 2) whether it would damage health of the public and 3) whether it made unfounded allegation against specific individuals.

* Chung's understanding of free speech: "When we publish someone's article, or interview a person, or cite some remarks, it does not mean that we agree or suppose those speech. We shall let it speak if a proposition or remark concerns public interest, and...

...we shall let public debates to decide whether a saying is correct. Some people may say, we shall not suppress free speech in order to eliminate dangerous thoughts, instead we shall let dangerous thoughts be eliminated through free speech."

* Chung made 2 rather long remarks about his understanding of free speech, free speech in Hong Kong, and how #StandNews as a media should embody the faith in free speech.

Chung will continue to take the stand tomorrow.