HONG KONG (Reuters) - Pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai said on Thursday he was against violence and had not sought to incite hatred against China and Hong Kong authorities by calling for protests to defend basic rights, speaking in his second day of testimony in a landmark national security trial.

Jimmy Lai, who is charged with national security offenses, testified that his newspaper “carried a torch to the reality” of people’s desire for freedom in the city.

Former Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai denied in his landmark national security trial on Wednesday he had asked then U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to take action against the city and China during the territory's anti-government protests in 2019.

Jimmy Lai, the pugnacious Hong Kong media tycoon whose now shuttered tabloid Apple Daily was a regular thorn in Beijing’s side, took the stand Wednesday in his own defense for the first time in a high stakes national security trial that could send him to prison for life.

Former publisher Jimmy Lai has denied that he asked a colleague to draft a list of potential sanction targets in testimony at his landmark national security trial in Hong Kong

By Jessie Pang, James Pomfret HONG KONG, November 20 (Reuters) -Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy advocate Jimmy Lai, 76, testified in court for the first time on Wednesday in his landmark national security trial,

The sentencing of 47 pro-democracy activists and the trial of medial mogul Jimmy Lai show how Hong Kong’s courts are a tool for repression, legal analysts say.

Jimmy Lai testified for the first time in his years-long national security trial on Wednesday, taking a defiant stand against the Hong Kong government’s charges of conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign countries.

Former Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai testified he met with then-Vice President Mike Pence and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during Hong Kong’s anti-government protests in 2019 but told the court at his landmark national security trial Wednesday that he did not ask the U.

Judges grill former media boss on ‘confidential’ US message he forwarded to staff and friends in opposition camp.