Wall Street Journal firing shocks chair of Hong Kong journalists group
Selina Cheng says the media outlet terminated her contract Wednesday after she accepted the role leading the association, known as the HKJA.
Speaking with VOA, Cheng said, “I think I would not be terminated if I had complied with their request to not be chair.”
The reporter says Wall Street Journal editors had warned her that her HKJA role could be a conflict of interests because the Journal covers press freedom issues in Hong Kong.
Cheng said in a news conference that the Journal's actions called into question its commitment to press freedom, saying management is blocking employees "from advocating for freedoms the Journal reporters rely on to work, in a place where journalists and their rights are under threat."
She said the Journal is applying a double standard, noting its advocacy efforts to free American journalist Evan Gershkovich, who is on trial in Russia.
Cheng, who joined the Journal as a full-time employee in 2022, covers the electric vehicle and auto industry.
A spokesperson at Dow Jones, parent company of the Journal, confirmed to VOA that personnel changes were made in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
When pressed over the reason to terminate Cheng’s role, the spokesperson said, “We don't comment on specific individuals. This is a newsroom decision.”
The spokesperson added, “The Wall Street Journal has been and continues to be a fierce and vocal advocate for press freedom in Hong Kong and around the world."
Conflict brewing for weeks
In a statement shared on the social media platform X on Wednesday, Cheng said that about three weeks ago, Wall Street Journal editors learned that she was running for election to be chair of HKJA.
Cheng says that her supervisor, who is based in Britain, then asked her to withdraw.
“She also asked me to quit the board — which I have served on since 2021 —even though the Wall Street Journal approved this when I was hired. This day was the day before our election,” Cheng said in a statement.
When she refused, Cheng says, her supervisor told her the role as chair “would be incompatible” with her job and that “employees of the Journal should not be seen as advocating for press freedom in a place like Hong Kong.”
Cheng told VOA she had been expecting something to happen when she refused to stop her association with the HKJA.
“There didn’t seem to be any room for discussion, and they went straight to threatening to dismiss weeks ago. I’m deeply shocked and appalled by this,” she said.
The journalist said that on Wednesday, Gordon Fairclough, the world coverage chief at the Journal, flew from Britain to Hong Kong to inform Cheng her role had been terminated as part of a restructure.
Cheng said the Journal made layoffs in Hong Kong earlier this year, but that she was kept on.
“Prior to knowing that I was going to run for chair, there wasn’t any indication [of being dismissed],” she told VOA. “In fact, I was a small number of people kept on in the newsroom and my reporting area was highlighted from our editor in chief as being one of the key areas to continue reporting on in Asia.”
Cheng told VOA she had not been asked to relocate to any other of the Journal bureaus.
Cheng has worked in Hong Kong since 2017, reporting on the umbrella protest movement, the removal of books about Tiananmen Square from libraries and a lobbying campaign that sought to revoke the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.
She previously worked at English news website the Hong Kong Free Press and Hong Kong media outlet HK01.
Association is 'outraged'
The HKJA in a statement said that it was “outraged” by the Journal’s actions. The statement says Cheng is consulting her lawyers about a potential breach of Hong Kong labor law.
“By pressuring employees not to take part in the HKJA, a key advocate for both local and international journalists working in Hong Kong, the WSJ risks hastening the decline of what space for independent journalism remains,” the statement said.
The HKJA said that other elected board members had come under similar pressure.
The HKJA has come under pressure from authorities and criticism from Chinese-state media since Beijing enacted the national security law in Hong Kong four years ago to quell dissent. The association has been criticized for alleged links to activist organizations.
Former HKJA chair Ronson Chan was sentenced to five days in jail in September for allegedly obstructing a police officer.
Chan was an editor at the now-defunct Stand News website, one of several media outlets to close for allegedly conspiring to publish seditious publications. Media executives and journalists from the outlet are on trial, with a verdict expected in August.
Press freedom in Hong Kong and East Asia have seen a decline in the past year, according to media watchdog Reporters without Borders, known as RSF.
Hong Kong ranks 135 out of 180, where 1 shows the best environment. In 2019, the year before the national security law came in, Hong Kong ranked 73.
Since the national security law was enacted, at least 28 journalists and press freedom defenders have been arrested, with 10 still in jail, and over a dozen media outlets have closed.
Aleksandra Bielakowska, an advocacy officer at RSF, says press freedom has “plummeted.”
"While Reporters Without Borders does not comment on individual employment disputes, we want to express our support for Selina Cheng's courageous work with the Hong Kong Journalists Association,” she told VOA.
“As press freedom has sharply plummeted in Hong Kong in recent years, and as pressure has grown against foreign and domestic media operating in the territory, independent journalism is more crucial than ever,” she said.
RSF’s World Press Freedom Index lists these countries in East Asia as the most dangerous for media: China, North Korea and Vietnam.