Nine years to the day since the Swedish publisher Gui Minhai was detained, the Swedish publishing industry is holding a digital manifestation. For the fourth year in a row, an artist – this year Martin Ander – has been commissioned to create a portrait of Gui Minhai, which is then published in various social media channels.
The manifestation is being held on the initiative of the Swedish Publishers' Association.
"We will never forget Gui Minhai! All of us who work at Swedish publishing houses must remind ourselves of Gui Minhai's fate and how many other publishers work under difficult circumstances around the world," says Olle Lidbom from the Publishers' Association's freedom of speech committee in a press release.
The purpose of imprisoning publishers is to silence them, according to Lidbom, who emphasizes that Swedish publishers must continue to speak out.
Gui Minhai is imprisoned in China without the possibility of a fair trial. He previously lived in Hong Kong, where his publishing house Mighty Current published books that portrayed the Chinese leadership in a less flattering light.
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