Government suppression and closure [ edit ]

Stand news ( chinese : 立場新聞) was a free non-profit online news website based in hong kong from 2014 to 2021. Founded in december 2014, it was the successor of house news. It primarily focused on social and political issues in hong kong, and generally took a pro-democracy editorial position. Stand news was ranked highest in credibility among online news media in hong kong in two public opinion surveys conducted by the chinese university of hong kong in 2016 and 2019. On 29 december 2021, amid the backdrop of increasing government suppression of news media following the 2020 enactment of the hong kong national security law , stand news was raided by the hong kong police force , who arrested senior staff and froze the company's assets. Hong kong's government denies that and its leader, carrie lam, said the action against stand news was aimed at seditious activity, not at suppression of the media. "these actions have nothing to do with so-called suppression of press freedom," ms lam told reporters. "journalism is not seditious … but seditious activities could not be condoned under the guise of news reporting. "set up in 2014 as a non-profit organisation, stand news was the