This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
The Wall Street Journal has fired Hong Kong correspondent Selina Cheng as part of “restructuring” after telling her not to run for chairman of the city’s journalists’ union, a post she was elected to in June, she said in a statement via her X account.
“Today I was fired from the Wall Street Journal,” said Cheng, who is the current chair of the Hong Kong Journalists’ Association, or HKJA, the official labor union representing journalists and editorial staff in the city. The right to join a labor union is enshrined in Hong Kong’s constitution, the Basic Law.
“I am appalled that the first press conference I am giving as HKJA’s new chair is to announce that I was fired for taking up this position in a press union,” Cheng said in a statement posted to X on July 17.
Cheng said she was approached by senior editors last month after they heard she was running in elections for the chair of the union.
“My supervisor in the U.K. directed me to withdraw from the election. 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,” Cheng said. “This was the day before our election.”
She added that her treatment was in stark contrast to the Journal‘s vocal support for its reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is currently on trial in Russia for “espionage” charges that U.S. officials have described as a “sham.”
“I declined her requests, and was immediately told it would be incompatible with my job,” she said.
‘Deeply shocked’
Cheng quoted her editor as saying that Journal employees shouldn’t be seen as advocates for press freedom in a place like Hong Kong, although there was no problem with similar behaviors in Western countries where press freedom is greater.
“I am deeply shocked that senior editors at the paper would actively violate their employees’ human rights, by preventing them from advocating for freedoms the Journal‘s reporters rely on to work, in a place where journalists and their rights are under threat,” Cheng told a news conference.
Cheng said she was fired on Thursday after U.K.-based Foreign Editor Gordon Fairclough visited Hong Kong to deliver the news in person. The official reason he gave was “restructuring.”
“I reminded my editors that becoming an officer of a union is legally protected in Hong Kong,” Cheng said.
She blamed “fear and unease” over the situation in Hong Kong for the paper’s decision.
“I am disappointed if these editors abroad have come to think press freedom is a controversial issue, as those who wish to intimidate reporters might like us to believe,” Cheng said. “It is not.”
A spokesperson from Dow Jones & Co., a division of News Corp. that publishes the Wall Street Journal confirmed that it made some personnel changes but that it couldn’t comment on specific individuals.
“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,” the person said, asking not to be identified.
Press freedom drops sharply
Cheng’s election came after outspoken former chairman Ronson Chan stepped down from the union leadership citing threats and pressure from pro-China sources.
Officials in China and Hong Kong repeatedly claim that journalists are safe to carry out “legitimate” reporting activities under both the 2020 National Security Law and the Article 23 Safeguarding National Security Law, which was passed on March 23.
But pro-democracy media magnate Jimmy Lai is currently on trial for “collusion with foreign forces” for printing articles in his now-shuttered Apple Daily.
Journalists and press freedom campaigners, meanwhile, say press freedom has gone sharply downhill, as Beijing ramps up its mission to protect “national security” with a constant expansion of forbidden topics and “red lines” in recent years.
Foreign journalists have also been targeted, with the city refusing to renew a work visa for the Financial Times‘ Victor Mallet in 2018 after he hosted pro-independence politician Andy Chan as a speaker at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club where he was an official at the time.
‘Disappointed and outraged’
The Hong Kong Journalists’ Association said it isn’t the first time that one of its members has been warned off standing for election by their employer, either.
“In recent years, a growing number of potential candidates for board positions at the HKJA, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong and the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China have been warned off standing for election, or told outright they cannot without risking their jobs,” the union said in a statement posted to its website.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association said it was “disappointed and outraged” by Cheng’s sacking, adding that the union and Cheng are currently seeking legal advice regarding her position.
“The Wall Street Journal has covered the state of press freedom in Hong Kong extensively [yet its firing of Cheng] risks hastening the decline of what space for independent journalism remains,” it said in the July 17 statement.
Cheng said that preventing employees from becoming an officer or member of a union, or penalizing them for doing so, would violate Hong Kong’s Employment Ordinance, on pain of a fine and a criminal record, Cheng said.
Article 27 of the Basic Law guarantees that Hong Kong residents have the freedom of association and the freedom to form and join trade unions.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said media outlets shouldn’t contribute to attempts by the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities to erase press freedom.
“The Wall Street Journal’s decision to fire Selina Cheng is outrageous and disappointing,” the group’s acting China director Maya Wang said in a statement.
“The unjust firing of Selina Cheng illustrates once again the plummeting press freedom in Hong Kong, once among the best in the world, to a point where even journalists working for foreign outlets cannot safely operate in the city without fear,” Wang said.
Veteran media commentator To Yiu-ming said Cheng’s sacking would make its staff wonder if it was only interested in turning a profit.
“It turns out that there are limits to press freedom,” To said. “It turns out that there is a mechanism for self-censorship.”
“Maybe they’re just looking to make a profit.”
