Hong Kong Journalists Association calls on all media organisations to allow their employees to freely advocate for press freedom in solidarity with fellow journalists in Hong Kong and China.
This statement was originally published on hkja.org.hk on 17 July 2024.
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.
Ms. Cheng, who was elected by HKJA members last month, was told on July 17 that her position at the Journal was being eliminated with immediate effect, following a previous round of layoffs at the paper’s Hong Kong bureau in which she was unaffected.
Prior to her dismissal, Journal editors pressured Ms. Cheng to withdraw from running in the HKJA election as chair and to resign from the executive committee, which she refused to. The HKJA and Ms. Cheng are currently consulting lawyers about the paper’s potential breach of Hong Kong labour law in dismissing Ms. Cheng.
Ms. Cheng, a veteran Hong Kong journalist for both Chinese and English-language outlets, has been a member of the HKJA’s executive committee since 2021, and was most recently the organization’s honorary secretary prior to her election as chair.
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.
The HKJA calls on all media organizations operating in Greater China to support the work of press groups such as the HKJA, FCCHK and FCC China, and to allow their employees to freely advocate for press freedom and better working conditions in solidarity with fellow journalists in Hong Kong and China.
