IPA is very concerned about the degradation of the freedom to publish situation in Hong Kong after five speech therapists, turned authors and publishers, were sentenced to 19 months in prison. The five, which published a series of children’s picture books, were found guilty of ‘conspiracy to print, publish, distribute, display and/or reproduce seditious publications’ by a Hong Kong District Court according to reports in the Guardian, New York Times and CNN.

Kristenn Einarsson, Chair of the IPA’s Freedom to Publish Committee said: The freedom to publish situation in Hong Kong is deteriorating rapidly. What was once a vibrant, free publishing market is being constrained, with cases like this clearly intended to scare other authors and publishers into self-censorship.