HONG KONG (AP) — The new chairman of Hong Kong’s largest media professionals’ group said Wednesday that he lost his job at The Wall Street Journal after his bosses asked him to withdraw from a leadership election but he refused.
Selina Cheng told reporters at a press conference that a senior editor told her she was being fired from her job due to restructuring, but Cheng said she believes the real reason is related to her boss’s request about three weeks ago to withdraw from the election for president of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, a trade union of journalists that advocates for press freedom.
She also said her boss asked her to step down from the association’s board of directors, a position she has held since 2021. When she refused, she was told it was “incompatible with her duties.”
“I am appalled that at my first press conference as the new chairman of the Hong Kong Daily Association, I have to announce that I have been sacked for taking up a position in the press union,” said Cheng, who was elected as the new chairman in June.
Dow Jones, which publishes the paper, confirmed on Wednesday that it had made “some personnel changes” but declined to comment on individuals.
“The Wall Street Journal has always been and will continue to be a fierce and vocal advocate for press freedom in Hong Kong and around the world,” the paper said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press.
Once seen as a bastion of media freedom in Asia, Hong Kong has seen dramatic political change shrink the scope of its journalists’ activities.
Since Beijing introduced the national security law in 2020, two local media outlets known for their critical reporting of the government, Apple Daily and Stand News, have Closed after arrests of senior executivesIncluding the publisher of Apple Daily Jimmy Lai.
Hong Kong enacted a new national security law in March that targets offences including espionage, leaking state secrets and “colluding with external forces” to commit illegal acts. Concerns of many journalists They fear that media freedom will decline further.
Less than a week after the bill was passed, the U.S. provided funding. Radio Free Asia Hong Kong branch office announced It was closed This is due to safety concerns under the new law.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association has come under criticism in recent years from local authorities and pro-Beijing media.
In June, Security Secretary Chris Tan said the association lacked legitimacy and accused it of siding with protesters during the 2019 protests.
The Wall Street Journal has also faced pressure from the government: Last July, it received three letters of complaint from Mr Tan over editorials and opinion pieces.
In May, the US media company told staff it was shifting its regional “centre of gravity” from Hong Kong to Singapore, resulting in some staff losing their jobs in the Chinese financial hub. Chen, who was in charge of China’s auto and energy sectors, was not affected.
After she refused to withdraw from elections to the Hong Kong Journalists Association last month, she said her boss told her that Wall Street Journal employees could not be seen as advocating for press freedom “in a place like Hong Kong” because such an argument would be divisive when the paper covers press freedom cases in the city.
Chen said the media has supported his colleagues. Evan GershkovichArrested in Russia Suspicion He, his employer and the US government vehemently deny this.
“That’s why I’m deeply shocked that the newspaper’s senior editors are actively violating the human rights of their employees by obstructing WSJ journalists from asserting the press freedom they rely on for their work,” said Chen, who worked as a video news assistant for The Associated Press in Hong Kong in 2014.
She claimed her former employer was a negative influence on Hong Kong’s deteriorating press freedom.
The Hong Kong Daily Association said in a statement that by pressuring its employees not to participate in independent journalism, The Wall Street Journal risks hastening the decline of what remains of space for independent journalism. The association’s other elected directors have also been pressured by their employers to resign, the association said, without providing details.
In Reporters Without Borders’ latest World Press Freedom Index, Hong Kong was ranked 135th out of 180 countries and territories.
