A Wall Street Journal reporter in Hong Kong said she was fired after being elected to lead a press union that has come under attack by Beijing amid a national security crackdown.
Selina Cheng, who was elected chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) on June 22, said in a statement posted Wednesday on X that she had been terminated from her job covering China’s car sector earlier in the day.
Her London-based supervisor at The Journal had asked her last month to withdraw from the election, she added.
“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,” Cheng said in the statement.
She quoted her supervisor as saying having Journal employees advocate for media freedoms would create conflicts of interest because the newspaper reports on related topics, including the ongoing trials of Hong Kong journalists and media organizations.
“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,” she said. “It is not.”
The HKJA, a trade union established in 1968, has come under increasing pressure from authorities in recent years. Both Hong Kong officials and Beijing state media have accused it of siding with protesters during the anti-government demonstrations in 2019, a charge the association has denied.
For decades before the protests, the group was seen as a thriving symbol of Hong Kong’s cherished personal freedoms, which marked a sharp contrast with the highly regulated media landscape in mainland China.
But critics have increasingly bemoaned the territory’s shrinking press freedoms since Beijing imposed a national security on Hong Kong after the 2019 protests. They cite the closure of multiple news outlets and cases of editors being put on trial. Amid a wider crackdown on civil liberties, many opposition figures were rounded up to face trial, with civil groups forced to disband.
Cheng said Gordon Fairclough, The Journal’s world coverage chief, flew in from the UK to deliver her dismissal in person, explaining that her job had been eliminated due to restructuring.
In May, The Journal’s editor-in-chief Emma Tucker announced layoffs in Hong Kong as part of a strategy to shift the “center of gravity in the region” to Singapore, she said in an internal email seen by CNN. Cheng said she had survived that round of cuts.
A spokesperson for The Journal confirmed to CNN that personnel changes were made on Wednesday but declined to 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,” he said.
For months, the newspaper has been running a worldwide campaign calling for the release of Evan Gershkovich, a Journal reporter who has been detained in Russia for more than a year accused of spying for the CIA.
“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 freedoms the Journal’s reporters rely on to work, in a place where journalists and their rights are under threat,” Cheng wrote.
She plans to continue to lead the HKJA.
