Journalists take pictures of a Correctional Services van departing the Hong Kong high court with two men jailed for 19 years in a case that has raised concerns about press freedom in the Chinese-run city.

Reuters/Hong Kong

Two men who attacked a former chief editor of a widely respected Hong Kong newspaper with a meat cleaver were jailed yesterday for 19 years in a case that has raised concerns about press freedom in the Chinese-run city.
Yip Kim-wah and Wong Chi-wah, both 39 years old, showed no emotion as the sentence was handed down for “grievous bodily harm with intent” in the stabbing of former Ming Pao chief editor Kevin Lau on February 26 last year in broad daylight.
Speaking to the court, Justice Esther Toh said the assault was carried out “in cold blood ... for financial gain”, and that it was a “brazen attack on the rule of law in Hong Kong”.
Lau last week urged the police to continue investigating so that the “mastermind” behind the attack could be brought to justice, with the motives for the crime still unclear.
The two men told police they had each been paid HK$100,000 ($12,900) to attack Lau but refused to say who paid them.
The attack on Lau was cited as the most violent example of how press freedom in Hong Kong has deteriorated, according to a recent report by the Hong Kong Journalists Association.
The stabbing came in the months before last year’s mass pro-democracy demonstrations, and was widely seen as a warning to Hong Kong’s vibrant media that has remained a bastion of critical reporting on China.
The defendants said police had forced them to confess.
Yip said to the jury that several Chinese officers had told him the case was politically important to Beijing, and that they needed someone to admit to it as soon as possible.
Senior police officers denied the accusations, media reports said.