{"id":6606,"date":"2016-02-18T04:14:37","date_gmt":"2016-02-18T09:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=6606"},"modified":"2016-02-18T04:16:02","modified_gmt":"2016-02-18T09:16:02","slug":"international-publishers-urge-chief-executive-to-take-action-on-missing-booksellers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/international-publishers-urge-chief-executive-to-take-action-on-missing-booksellers","title":{"rendered":"International publishers urge Chief Executive to take action on missing booksellers"},"content":{"rendered":"

18 February 2016, Hermina Wong<\/em><\/p>\n

Publishing and bookselling associations based in the US and Europe have penned a joint letter to Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, urging him to take action on the missing Causeway Bay booksellers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe forced disappearance and detention of Hong Kong residents by mainland Chinese authorities\u00a0is a direct and fundamental threat to Hong Kong\u2019s treaty-based regional autonomy,\u201d the associations said in the letter.<\/p>\n

\"PEN-IPA\"

Publishing and bookselling associations signing the joint letter to Chief Executive CY Leung. Photo: PEN American Center.<\/p><\/div>\n

They said that the booksellers, from the publishing company Mighty Current, were accused by mainland publications of \u201cstirring up troubles on the mainland\u201d because they were selling books critical of the Chinese government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case has sent a\u00a0terrifying message to writers, publishers, and booksellers in Hong Kong that tackling politically\u00a0sensitive topics can imperil an individual\u2019s freedom and safety,\u201d the associations said.<\/p>\n

They urged the Chief Executive to take action.\u00a0\u201cYour government has a legal as well as a moral\u00a0obligation to defend these rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Five

The five booksellers have been missing since last year.<\/p><\/div>\n

They also asked Leung to \u201crequest a formal assurance from Beijing that\u00a0it will respect Hong Kong\u2019s autonomy and abide by the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration\u201d.<\/p>\n

The associations, based in the US and Europe, include\u00a0PEN American Center, the Authors Guild and the Federation of European Publishers. They all seek to defend free expression in written work.<\/p>\n

The five\u00a0co-owners and staff members of Causeway Bay Books\u00a0and its parent company Mighty Current \u2013 which specialises in Chinese political gossip titles \u2013\u00a0all disappeared\u00a0late last year<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0Gui Minhai, a Swedish national, went missing in Thailand last October. During the same month, Lui Por and\u00a0Lam Wing-kee went missing in Shenzhen, and\u00a0Cheung Chi-ping went missing in Dongguan. British national Lee Bo disappeared from Hong Kong in December.<\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.hongkongfp.com\/2016\/02\/18\/international-publishers-urge-chief-executive-take-action-missing-booksellers\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

18 February 2016, Hermina Wong Publishin … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,370,34,167],"tags":[1473,1511,1400,90,1474,1477,352,1512],"views":7195,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6606"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6606"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6610,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6606\/revisions\/6610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}