U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is calling on Beijing and the Hong Kong government to immediately release media staff members arrested in Hong Kong on Dec. 29, following a police raid of their newsroom on the same day. “We call on PRC [People’s Republic of China] and Hong Kong authorities to cease targeting Hong Kong’s free and independent media, and to immediately release those journalists and media executives who have been unjustly detained and charged,” Blinken said, according to a statement. On Dec. 29, over 200 national security officers raided Hong Kong’s independent online media outlet Stand News. The police froze the outlet’s assets worth HK$61 million (roughly $7.8 million) and arrested two current and former editors, and four former board members, accusing them of engaging in the “conspiracy to publish seditious publications” under a colonial-era ordinance. Hours after the raid, Stand News announced that it would be ending its …