Hong Kong writers relaunch literary group in face of ‘unprecedented’ threat to free speech
Head of local chapter of PEN International says disappearance of five booksellers shows the need to unite writers, journalists and academics is ‘greater than ever’
A group of around 30 writers in Hong Kong has revived a literary organisation that aims to promote freedom of speech, warning that the need to defend the right has taken on “unprecedented urgency”.
Jason Ng, president of the Hong Kong chapter of PEN International, said Beijing’s “long arm” was being felt in “nearly every corner of civil society”.
PEN International stood for poets, essayists, and novelists when founded in 1921 but now includes other types of writers. Ng explained that the original chapter in the city was founded in the 1980s by a handful of expat writers and journalists, but it became inactive around 2007 after a number of founding members left the city.
Ng, who is also a lawyer, said that in view of the recent high-profile disappearances of booksellers from Causeway Bay Books, who later turned up on the mainland, and the interference in academic appointment in universities, the need to unite writers, journalists and academics was “greater than ever”.
