New York, July 16, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Hong Kong authorities to immediately release freelance journalists and booksellers Sum Wan-wah and Mandy Lau and end their escalating crackdown on independent publishing in the city, following the second such incident in less than a month.
On July 15, Hong Kong police
said
its National Security Department arrested two men and three women after raiding two bookstores in Mong Kok district. The five are suspected of violating the city’s Safeguarding National Security Ordinance for displaying items with “seditious intent” and selling publications with “seditious content.”
Among those
arrested
were Sum and Lau, who co-founded the Have a Nice Stay bookstore with three other journalists in 2022 after
losing their jobs
amid Hong Kong’s worsening press freedom climate, according to sources familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Have A Nice Stay’s owners include former reporters from the
now-shuttered
news outlet Stand News, according to
Pulse HK News
. One of the bookstore’s missions, its website says, is to promote journalism and literary reportage. In 2023, the bookstore also launched the online magazine Leave Blank to “reclaim the identity of being journalists.”
“Using national security legislation to go after another bookstore run by journalists is an attack on press freedom and independent publishing in the city,” said CPJ Asia-Pacific Director Beh Lih Yi. “Hong Kong authorities must release journalists Sum Wan-wah and Mandy Lau and stop persecuting independent publishers.”
Police have accused the five of selling and displaying publications that incited hatred against the Hong Kong government, the judiciary, and law enforcement agencies. Officers seized books during the operation and all five remain in detention pending investigation, police said.
Among the seized books was “Let Only Red Flowers Bloom: Identity and Belonging in Xi
… [more]
