Stand News stood for Western imperialism

Today the Hong Kong police arrested several current and former senior staff members of online media outlet Stand News for “conspiracy to publish seditious material”. As the investigation is ongoing information is still sketchy.

Before you condemn it as an attack on press freedom, you should know that Stand News is far from an independent and organically grown news outlet. It was planted and fertilized by foreign forces hellbent on destabilizing Hong Kong society and its political life.

Like its English-language counterpart Hong Kong Free Press, Stand News was co-founded in 2014 by Evan Fowler who also acted as its director before moving to the UK.

Evan Fowler works for the Henry Jackson Society (HJS), part of the influence/intelligence network known as Integrity Initiative, a UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office operation. The organization’s internal files, leaked by Anonymous in November 2018, reveal that Integrity Initiative, among other things, maintains clandestine global networks of journalists, academics, military and intelligence operatives to spread pro-Western propaganda and encourage more aggressive policies toward Moscow and Beijing.

Evan Fowler’s pal and co-author John Hemmings is HJS Asia Studies director and an adjunct Fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The CSIS is funded by defense contractors and dominated by members with ties to the State Department and CIA. (to be continued)

The article continues here STAND NEWS — A VECTOR OF FOREIGN INFLUENCE | by Laura Ruggeri | Jan, 2022 | Medium