A Hong Kong Court has jailed two journalists who led a pro-democracy newspaper after they were found guilty in a landmark sedition case last month.

Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, editors at the now-defunct Stand News media outlet, had published articles about the crackdown on civil liberties in the city under China.

Chung was sentenced to 21 months, while Lam was given 11 months, but was released on medical grounds. The publisher behind Stand News - Best Pencil - has been fined HK$5,000 (US$643; £480).

It is the first sedition case against journalists in Hong Kong since the territory’s handover from Britain to China in 1997.

After a lengthy trial, which began in October 2022 and was originally scheduled to last just 20 days, district court judge Kwok Wai-kin Kwok found that 11 articles published by Stand News were seditious and that Stand News had become a “danger to national security”.

Their newspaper’s editorial line supported “Hong Kong local autonomy”, Mr Kwok said in a written statement.

“It even became a tool to smear and vilify the Central Authorities [in Beijing] and the [Hong Kong] SAR Government,” he added.