On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Selina Cheng announced that she was fired after refusing her supervisor’s request to withdraw from the election for chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists’ Association (HKJA). Cheng was elected to the position on June 22 and assumed office on July 1. The HKJA has come under increased pressure in the wake of a national security crackdown that has empowered authorities to arrest journalists and force outlets to close. Cheng’s firing appears to highlight the questionable ways in which some outlets attempt to navigate the shrinking space for press freedom in Hong Kong.
Addressing reporters, Cheng said she was “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.” In her statement, she went on to describe the interventions by her WSJ superiors who attempted to justify their position against her defense of press freedom:
Around three weeks ago, after senior editors at the newspaper found out I was running to be HKJA chairperson, my supervisor in the UK 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. This was the day before our election.
I declined her requests, and was immediately told it would be incompatible with my job.
The editor said employees of the Journal should not be seen as advocating for press freedom in a place like Hong Kong, even though they can in Western countries, where it is already established. She acknowledged that Hong Kong’s press freedom is coming under severe challenges. She said the Journal continues to report on incidents related to press freedom in the city, such as trials against the press, so having its employees advocating for it would create a conflict. [Source]
Asked about the incident, a spokesman for Dow Jones, the publisher of the WSJ, said that the newspaper “has been and continues to be a fierce and vocal advocate for press freedom in Hong Kong and around the world.” But Cheng pointed out: “A media publisher or a news outlet cannot be saying that they are supporting or standing for media freedom if they actively prevent their employees from doing the same thing.” She added, “I do not believe there is any conflict of interest between my reporting and my role at HKJA,” and “the fact that [the WSJ has] come to believe that press freedom is a controversial issue is very worrying.”
The WSJ has also been engaged in a global advocacy campaign to support one of its reporters, Evan Gershkovich, who has been unlawfully detained in Russia since March 2023. Over a hundred WSJ staff members have engaged in various forms of public activism to demonstrate their support for Gershkovich. The WSJ’s editor-in-chief published a letter in the newspaper calling Gershkovich’s detention a “travesty of justice” and claiming that “the Kremlin has clamped down severely on independent reporting, effectively turning journalism into a crime.” Russia sits near the bottom of Reporters Without Borders’ 2024 Press Freedom Index, at 162 out of 180, and WSJ reporters continue to report on issues related to press freedom in Russia, including Gershkovich’s detention. (China ranks 172nd in the Reporters Without Borders index; Hong Kong, ranked separately, is at number 135 after a gradual fall from 18 in 2002.) As the Hong Kong Free Press noted, Cheng contrasted the WSJ’s different press-freedom positions in Russia and Hong Kong:
“It is obvious to me that the fear and unease the press in Hong Kong have been facing for years now has equally affected the Journal’s management, even though they are far away and in different continents,” Cheng said, later adding that she had proof of senior editors’ pressuring her regarding her role at the HKJA.
Cheng’s position was terminated with immediate effect on Wednesday morning, after the UK-based editor Gordon Fairclough flew to Hong Kong to deliver the message in person. While Cheng was told on Wednesday that her job was “eliminated due to restructuring,” she said the editor-in-chief had earlier highlighted that Chinese electric vehicles were among the most important stories for the paper in Asia.
[…] Cheng noted The Wall Street Journal’s solidarity with her colleague, reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained in Russia for over a year on espionage charges. She said she commended its “continued efforts to support him and secure his release in a hostile environment.”
“This is why I am deeply shocked that senior editors at the paper would actively violate their employees’ human rights by preventing them from advocating for press freedom that journalists rely on to work in a place where journalists and their rights are under threat,” she continued. [Source]
Eric Lai, a research fellow at the Georgetown Centre for Asian Law, said Cheng’s dismissal “could amount to a form of anti-union discrimination in domestic and international legal terms … Sadly, [the] WSJ is enabling the further erosion of press freedom and trade union rights for journalists in Hong Kong”. Cheng stated that she is consulting lawyers and considering taking legal steps to protect her rights against possible infringement of Hong Kong’s labor laws. She also expressed concern that her firing “will set a precedent, a negative one, for other international media and their colleagues in Hong Kong.” On Wednesday, the HKJA released a statement highlighting the ethical shortcomings of the WSJ’s handling of Cheng’s situation, and the similar pressure that other HKJA members have faced:
The Hong Kong Journalists Association is disappointed and outraged by the Wall Street Journal’s decision to terminate the employment of HKJA chairperson Selina Cheng, who has worked for the paper since April 2022.
[…] The Wall Street Journal has covered the state of press freedom in Hong Kong extensively. In May, the paper’s editorial board expressed concern over declining press freedom in the city, and yet, 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.
Disturbingly, the WSJ is not alone in taking this stance. Other elected HKJA board members have also been pressured by their employers to stand down. 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. [Source]
A firestorm of condemnation against the WSJ and support for Cheng followed news of her firing. Commenting on Cheng’s “unjust firing,” Maya Wang from Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated: “The Wall Street Journal’s decision to fire Selina Cheng is outrageous and disappointing. Media outlets should not contribute to the Chinese and Hong Kong governments’ escalating campaign to erase press freedom in the city.” HRW media chief and former WSJ China journalist Mei Fong stated: “Journalists can only do their best reporting when they know they’re backed by organizations that won’t crumble under political pressure.” Former WSJ China journalist Felicia Sonmez suggested the WSJ was relying on a double standard by allowing its journalists to lead press freedom groups in mainland China but not in Hong Kong.
The WSJ has come under growing pressure from the Hong Kong government. Last July, it received three complaint letters from Security Secretary Chris Tang over its editorial or opinion pieces. In May, it announced its staff would shift its “center of gravity in the region” from Hong Kong to Singapore, and it fired some staffers in the process. Other international outlets have made similar moves. RFA left Hong Kong in April, citing safety concerns for its staff after the passing of the Article 23 national security law. The New York Times moved its staff to Seol, South Korea in 2020.
In this inhospitable atmosphere, many local Hong Kong outlets have folded. Apply Daily was forced to close down in June 2021 after its executives were arrested. Its founder Jimmy Lai was sentenced to nearly six years in prison in December 2022 and is undergoing a national security trial. FactWire, an independent investigative news agency in Hong Kong, closed down in June 2022. Stand News dissolved in December 2021 after police raided its headquarters and arrested its employees. Around the same time, independent outlet Citizen News also closed down under pressure. Public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong also became neutered after the national security law.
More recently, Hong Kong government officials and state-media outlets have targeted the HKJA. In early July, the Global Times published a long piece attacking the HKJA and singling out Cheng individually:
Indeed, the HKJA, with its spotty history of colluding with separatist politicians and instigating riots in Hong Kong, is by no means a professional organization representing the Hong Kong media. It instead serves as a base for anti-China separatist forces to disrupt Hong Kong, and a malignant tumor that harms the city’s safety and stability, said analysts.
[…] A name list of the executive committee on the HKJA’s website showed how absurd and disturbing the association’s new leadership is. Its new chairperson is Selina Cheng, a Wall Street Journal reporter who has written a number of articles attacking the National Security Law for Hong Kong and the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance for “suppressing human rights and freedoms.” [Source]
