NYT's idea is an insult to intelligence

The New York Times has suggested the three young Hong Kong protesters recently jailed by the city's Court of Appeal for violating the law should be awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Nothing could be more ironic than that.

Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Alex Chow Yong-kang and Nathan Law Kwunchung are not political prisoners, as claimed by their sympathizers, but criminal offenders who violated the law by leading a protest in 2014. In July last year, they were convicted of unlawful assembly by a magistrate who spared them imprisonment. Upon appeal by the secretary of justice, the Court of Appeal sentenced them to between six and eight months' imprisonment on Aug 17 after considering the seriousness of their offenses and circumstances of the case.

"Unlawful assembly" is an offense punishable under the common-law system that originated in the United Kingdom. It was codified and stipulated in Section 18 of Hong Kong's Public Order Ordinance long before the city's return to China in July 1997, and has been retained as it does not violate the Basic Law.