A Beijing-owned publishing firm is guilty of defaming an association of Hong Kong media pundits and must pay them damages of HK$250,000 (US$32,154.8), Hong Kong’s High Court ruled on Monday.

The publisher must also stop further publication of the defamatory texts, the court ruled.

The dispute centered around the book “‘Occupy Central’ – A Perspective,” published by Joint Publishing (HK) Co. Ltd, a Hong Kong-based company controlled by the mainland’s liaison office. It was written by Kwan Sau-king under the pen name Yu Fei.

The winner in the case, the Independent Commentators Association, is an independent not-for-profit body founded by media commentators on current affairs.

The book, published in February 2015, alleged that the association had received funding from a U.S. agency, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). It suggested that the association is a branch of the Central Intelligence Agency, funded by the U.S. government, which has “since 1995 started to fund local opposition organizations” in Hong Kong.

The book also accused the association of having “a clear-cut stance of pro-pan-democrats,” “selectively reported the facts”, and made comments that “were partial towards the demonstrators in the Occupy Central Movement.”

The book described the Occupy Central campaign, also known as the Umbrella Movement, as a “color revolution” orchestrated by the U.S. government.

The judgement found that these claims were unfounded and defamatory. The association also refuted the claim of offshore funding, stating that its income in the 2014 financial year was only HK$57,000 (US$7,335), of which HK$53,000 came from membership fees and the rest from honorariums received for participating in talks and seminars.

The judge faulted Joint Publishing and the author for failing to verify their allegations and making no attempt to reach out to the association, He dismissed the publisher’s claim that “it is not common practice in the book publishing industry to reach out to subjects for comment.”

The association welcomed the High Court’s judgement for defending its reputation. In a statement, it further stressed that the association has never received any money from foreign entities. Since its inception in 2014, the association has been self-funded and has not accepted donations from abroad, it said.

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