A former Wall Street Journal reporter said Wednesday the newspaper had fired her after she took up a role heading a Hong Kong press union and advocating for media freedom in the Chinese city.
Selina Cheng, who covered China’s electric vehicle market, said she was sacked less than a month after she was elected head of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA).
“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,” she told reporters.
Cheng said she was told by her supervisor that employees “should not be seen as advocating for press freedom in a place like Hong Kong”.
A spokesperson for Journal’s parent company, Dow Jones, confirmed that personnel changes had been made, but declined to comment on Cheng’s case.
The Journal “continues to be a fierce and vocal advocate for press freedom in Hong Kong and around the world”, the spokesperson said.
Hong Kong steadily dropped in press freedom rankings after its 1997 handover to China, and the decline sped up after Beijing cracked down on dissent after protests in 2019.
“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 on different continents,” Cheng said.
The Journal said in May it would move its Asia headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore.
