【明報專訊】LAST WEEK thirteen citizens who had joined protests against the North East New Territories development plans and three activists who belonged to Scholarism or the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS) were jailed. That has had more than twenty thousand supporters take to the streets. Some of their supporters call them "political prisoners", asserting that an "authoritarian era" has arrived in Hong Kong. But not a few lawyers maintain that it is necessary to uphold the rule of law, that a good man who commits a crime is a criminal just the same and that one should not doubt the judiciary is independent. Both the Bar Association and the Law Society have said nothing is seen that may show any court ruling is based on any factor that lies beyond legal principles. Our having freedom is not a certainty. Hongkongers must stay alert. But one exaggerates when one says "authoritarianism has arrived in the SAR".