Hong Kong jails woman for posting ‘seditious’ content on Twitter and Facebook

The 48-year-old woman had a ‘plan to incite the emotions of others’

Maroosha Muzaffar

File. Protesters walk within a cordon line wearing number tags during a rally in Hong Kong, 26 March 2023

(Associated Press)

A Hong Kong woman has been jailed for four months after she admitted to making “seditious” posts on her social media platforms.

The 48-year-old woman’s posts — which included protest songs and imagery — aimed to “bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection” against the local government and Beijing, a local court heard.

Law Oi-wa was given a sentence of four months in jail after she pleaded guilty of “doing an act or acts with a seditious intention,” the local media reported.

Ms Law is said to have published 65 statements on Twitter and Facebook between 6 June last year and 28 March this year with an aim to incite violence and “counsel disobedience to law”.

Earlier in March, two men were arrested in Hong Kong for the possession of picture books which authorities say are “seditious”.

Amnesty International’s deputy regional director Hana Young said at the time: “People’s freedoms have been battered in Hong Kong since the introduction of the National Security Law in 2020, but even in that context this feels like another new low for human rights in the city.

“National security police have arrested two people for possessing ‘seditious’ children’s books about sheep and wolves – a so-called ‘crime’ that is punishable by up to two years in prison.

“It is the latest example of the Hong Kong authorities using the colonial-era sedition law as a pretext for cracking down on critical voice.

“These ludicrous sedition charges must be dropped. No one should be imprisoned only because they own children’s books.”

They were believed to be the first arrested for merely owning the books - after the publishers were jailed last year. Authorities interpreted the books - about sheep trying to hold back wolves from their village - as referring to Hong Kongers and China’s government.

Meanwhile, the judge when handing the punishment to the 48-year-old woman said the defendant had a plan to incite the emotions of others and the offence period lasted for 10 months. The judge added that the shared social media posts might have “stimulated” others.