{
  "title": "Incidents: insult and defamation laws, outcome upheld by a court",
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  "counts_caveat": "The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.",
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        "rsf": {
          "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
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          "rank": 140,
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          "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 140th of 180",
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        "label": "Insult and defamation laws",
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        "count": 1
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    {
      "slug": "2024-hong-kong-stand-news-editors-convicted-sedition",
      "title": "Hong Kong court convicts Stand News editors of sedition",
      "occurred_on": "2024-08-29",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "HK",
      "country_name": "Hong Kong",
      "continent": "asia",
      "jurisdiction": "HK",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "insult_and_defamation_laws",
      "tactics": [
        "insult_and_defamation_laws"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "john-lee",
      "leader_name": "John Lee",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The prosecution centered on opinion pieces and interviews Stand News had published examining Hong Kong's 2019 protests and the 2020 National Security Law, coverage prosecutors said smeared the security law and law enforcement.",
      "outcome": "upheld",
      "outcome_on": "2024-09-26",
      "outcome_note": "Both editors were sentenced in September 2024; no reversal of the convictions was reported.",
      "stage": "punish",
      "ladder_note": null,
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 140,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 140th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "2020s",
      "granularity": "granular",
      "status": "in_effect",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "A Hong Kong court convicted former Stand News editors Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam of conspiring to publish seditious material, under a colonial-era law, over articles the outlet had run before police raided its newsroom and it closed at the end of 2021.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2024-hong-kong-stand-news-editors-convicted-sedition"
    },
    {
      "slug": "2013-thailand-somyot-lese-majeste-sentence",
      "title": "Thailand: magazine editor Somyot Prueksakasemsuk is sentenced to 11 years under the lese-majeste law",
      "occurred_on": "2013-01-24",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "TH",
      "country_name": "Thailand",
      "continent": "asia",
      "jurisdiction": "TH",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "insult_and_defamation_laws",
      "tactics": [
        "insult_and_defamation_laws"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "yingluck-shinawatra",
      "leader_name": "Yingluck Shinawatra",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The two articles that led to the charge, published in Voice of Taksin magazine in February and March 2010, were written under a pseudonym by a former government spokesman living in exile, whom Somyot identified only after his own prosecution began.",
      "outcome": "upheld",
      "outcome_on": "2018-04-30",
      "outcome_note": "Somyot's conviction and sentence were not overturned; he served his full 11-year term and was released on completing it in April 2018.",
      "stage": "eliminate",
      "ladder_note": "An editor received an 11-year sentence under a royal insult law for articles written by someone else, and served the sentence in full before release.",
      "rsf": null,
      "era": "2010s",
      "granularity": "granular",
      "status": "historical",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "A Thai court sentenced magazine editor Somyot Prueksakasemsuk to 11 years in prison under Article 112 of the penal code, the country's lese-majeste law barring insults to the royal family, over two articles he published under a pen name.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-thailand-somyot-lese-majeste-sentence"
    }
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