Press freedom group calls on Hong Kong authorities to release journalist Leticia Wong

New York, June 25 (IANS) A leading international press freedom group on Thursday called on Hong Kong authorities to immediately release journalist and bookseller Leticia Wong Man-huen, saying that publishing activities should not be treated as threats to national security.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Wong was arrested on suspicion of selling seditious publications and receiving funds from foreign political organisations.

CPJ Asia-Pacific Director Beh Lih Yi said the arrest of a journalist and editor over items sold through an independent bookstore shows Hong Kong authorities are expanding national security laws ever deeper into the city's publishing sector. She added that authorities should immediately release Wong and stop treating publishing activities as threats to national security.

Citing various media reports, the CPJ said that Hong Kong National Security Police on Wednesday arrested Wong, a journalist and the owner of Hunter Bookstore, as well as a 32-year-old man.

The organisation noted that their arrests under the Beijing-imposed national security law come just days before the sixth anniversary of its enactment on June 30.

The police said that the proprietors of a shop in Sham Shui Po had been arrested for displaying items with seditious intent and selling publications that incited hatred against the Hong Kong government, judiciary, and law enforcement agencies. They were also accused of violating Section 25 of the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance for receiving remittances funded by foreign political organisations.

The CPJ cited news reports stating that among the allegedly seditious items and books that police seized was a copy of "The Troublemaker", a biography of former Apple Daily newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in February 2026 by a Hong Kong court.

Wong, a former political reporter for local newspaper Sing Tao Daily, is the editor-in-chief of Status Quo, a magazine published by Hunter Bookstore that features interviews, essays, and reporting on Hong Kong society and culture.