New York, September 30, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Hong Kong government to release independent journalist Tang Ho-wing, who was arrested on Wednesday after covering a recent gathering in the latest sedition case.
Police said they arrested a 37-year-old man under Hong Kong’s Safeguarding National Security Ordinance on suspicion of acting with “seditious intention,” according to a statement. Local media identified the man as Tang, founder of the independent media outlet Boom News, which mainly operates through social media platforms.
“Reporting is not sedition,” said CPJ Asia-Pacific Director Beh Lih Yi. “The arrest of independent journalist Tang Ho-wing shows the government’s intolerance for facts. Authorities must release him immediately and stop intimidating journalists in Hong Kong for doing their jobs.”
The arrest came after Boom News’ August 31 coverage of a small gathering in Hong Kong, featuring participants holding up yellow umbrellas to mark the seventh anniversary of a 2019 police crackdown on protests over a contested bill that would have allowed for the extradition of Hong Kong criminal suspects to stand trial abroad, including in mainland China.
Two of the umbrellas at the rally carried the logos of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, whose founder and publisher, Jimmy Lai, is serving a 20-year sentence on charges of foreign collusion and sedition.
Boom News covers Hong Kong’s current affairs through social media platforms, including Facebook, where it has 87,000 followers, and on YouTube, with nearly 51,000 subscribers.
Tang’s arrest is the fourth sedition case involving a journalist in just over three months. Three other journalists, who are also booksellers, were detained in separate investigations in June and July.
China consistently ranks as the world’s worst jailer of journalists, with at least 50 behind bars, according to CPJ’s latest data.
The Hong Kong government did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.