In October 2016, five Hong Kong booksellers were abducted for selling controversial books. Only 4 have returned.

To prevent this kind of oppression, we needed to get Hong Kong behind freedom of expression.

So we did the unthinkable, publishing our own controversial literature and selling it. With one small difference, it was all redacted.

To publicise the store, we created unique typographic posters in which we dissected Basic Law Article 27 (which protects Freedom of Expression) to reveal the voices of dissent it protects – including Edward Snowden, the Booksellers and the Umbrella Revolution protesters.

Every freedom needs a fighter, and Hong Kong has Amnesty International.

The execution features the actual text of Hong Kong’s Basic Law, with Article 27 intentionally dissected out to reveal the faces of dissenters behind it. The four featured people are:

1. Lam Wing-kee. One of the missing booksellers.

2. Ng Lai-ying - Cross border trade protestor.

3. A Pro-democracy demonstrator.

4. Edward Snowden - Former NSA contractor whistle blower.

Each of these are controversial figures, who have had their freedom of expression infringed by the growing oppression from government.

The bookstore sold out in two days, putting over 1000 pieces of branded protest art into the homes of passionate Hong Kongers. Through this and other endeavours, including selling limited edition art from Vhils, Shephard Fairey and more, the campaign raised over a million dollars in total.

What’s more, we got Hong Kong behind Amnesty in previously unheard of numbers.

The redaction of Hong Kong Free Press reached over 3.5 million people (half the population of Hong Kong) and the Reddit thread for the campaign is in the top ten most popular posts of all time, only slightly behind the world famous Umbrella Revolution of 2015.

But most importantly, we reminded people that the censorship remains as strong as ever, and that everyone needed Amnesty’s help to keep fighting it.