2024.10.09

Chow Hang-tung, former vice-chair of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, currently detained on charges of inciting subversion, filed a judicial review in July this year. She challenges the Correctional Services Department’s decision to confiscate four books sent by her mother, including “People Will Never Forget: A Record of the 1989 Democratic Movement” published by the Hong Kong Journalists Association and “Brother” by Chan Wai, citing reasons such as “biased descriptions of social events” and potentially causing prisoners to “develop a resistance to governance.”

Chow questions why these four books are not considered “banned” in Hong Kong and requests the court to overturn the department’s decision. According to the Judiciary’s website, the case is set for a permission hearing for the judicial review on April 1, 2025, expected to last 180 minutes.

The submission to the court states that from February 22 to March 1, 2024, Chow’s mother applied to send in the four books, which also include “The River Flows East: Recollections by Szeto Wah” and “Words of the Bell Toller: Reverend Chu Yiu-ming’s Memoirs.” In March, the Correctional Services issued four “Publication Confiscation Confirmations,” specifically citing “People Will Never Forget” and “Brother” for having “biased descriptions” that might “incite a resistance to governance” and pose “threats to institutional security and order, detrimental to rehabilitation.”

The submission contests that these books are not banned and are accessible in bookstores, universities, and some high school libraries in Hong Kong, arguing that the applicant should be able to freely obtain and read these books in Hong Kong. It also notes that the department failed to specify any fabricated facts or immediate dangers presented by these books.