Issue:
August 2024
Selina Cheng’s dismissal by the Wall Street Journal raises questions about the West’s commitment to press freedom in Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) was awarded the FCCJ Freedom of Press Award in Asia in 2021. On July 17, its new chairperson, Selina Cheng, a Hong Kong-based automotive industry reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was fired from her job, allegedly for using her new role as head of the HKJA, founded in 1968, to defend press freedom. In a message posted on X and seen by 2.2 million people, Cheng says the WSJ first tried to stop her from running in the election. When their request was declined, she was immediately told it would be "incompatible with her job" and subsequently laid off, with redundancy cited as the reason. Cheng, however, believes the termination was due to her union role and not a regular redundancy. The incident has raised questions about the West's commitment to media freedom in Hong Kong, with the focus on the WSJ, a globally recognized media organization whose advocacy for press freedom was applauded when another of its journalists, Evan Gershkovich, was charged and subsequently sentenced to 16 years in prison in Russia.
In response to a media question about the controversy, WSJ refused to go into detail, but a spokesperson said: “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.”
In an exclusive interview with the Number 1 Shimbun, Cheng said she didn’t expect to return to the WSJ. She explained the events leading to her dismissal, as well as what may lie in store for journalists and press freedom in Asia. (The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.)
Number 1 Shimbun: Tell us about the chain of events that led to your dismissal from the Wall Street Journal.
Selina Cheng: When I decided to step up to the chair role at HKJA, I entertained the possibility that I could be fired, but I thought [that] possibility would be quite small. The main reason is that there are very clear rules in Hong Kong protecting union activities. (Hong Kong generally is not very friendly to labor rights.) So that's what I relied on and also thinking that if the company fires me, it's going to be reputational damage to them … I thought that there could be other problems but not this one. So, that's why I decided to step up.
It's also because Ronson [Chen, the previous president of HKJA] said he would not renew his chair position … If we don't have a chair, then we can't form a board and our operation will be paralyzed until we renew the nomination period [and] there is a nomination.
NOS: How long have you been a member of HKJA?
SC: I think I first signed up to HKJA when I returned to Hong Kong to work as a reporter around 2017 or 2018. I have to admit I wasn't diligently renewing my membership every year. I think I was on and off until 2020 when I decided to join the board, because the press freedom condition in Hong Kong deteriorated so quickly and I wanted to do something about it.
NOS: Indeed, Hong Kong Journalists were awarded the FCCJ Freedom of Press award three years ago. We had a hard time finding someone to accept the award on their behalf, because Hong Kong was going through its own problems.
SC: Ever since Hong Kong implemented the national security law from government officials or from the state press, there is a very open sort of hostility against people for their foreign connections. With the new national security laws (now we have two sets of them), the acts of foreign collusion are criminalized. Generally that creates a sense that foreign entities or foreign individuals are not as welcome as before. And that's one of the aspects that worries the foreign businesses in Hong Kong and surely led to or contributed to their departure from the city. So when the FCCJ offered an award to Hong Kong journalists, people [would] worry that accepting the award meant colluding with a foreign party to criticize what's happening in Hong Kong. That's what people would be thinking when they refuse it.
NOS: How many regular members, working journalists or media organizations does HKJA have?
SC: We currently have around 300 members and I think 250 of them are working journalists. Then we have a couple of dozen PR members, a couple of student members, and a couple of retired members.
NOS: Does the mainstream media, such as The New York Times or Bloomberg, still keep their offices and correspondents in HK?
SC: The New York Times still has a bureau in Hong Kong. I'm not sure if they are members or if we have members from the New York Times, but we definitely have other mainstream Western media among our membership.
NOS: And what was their reaction to what is happening to you?
SC: I think the shock is much bigger to those working in the Western press. I have had colleagues at the Wall Street Journal from different parts of the company, whether it's on the news or on the commercial side [in] Hong Kong, Singapore or the U.S., telling me how shocked and angry and upset they are about what the company did to me.
To a point, I fear that it could erode some of the trust between editors and reporters, because reporters need to be able to rely on their editors and trust them in order to do good work. So I feel like a lot of the people in Western media were disappointed by what the Wall Street Journal decided to do. Obviously, it's a long standing institution and very powerful internationally, so people have expectations. Unfortunately, in this instance, it didn't live up to those expectations.
NOS: Did the WSJ actually ask you not to run [for the chair of HKJA]?
SC: Yes, that is correct. [It] was their first request.
NOS: There were other sensitive cases in the past, such as Haze Fan, a Chinese news staff member who worked for Bloomberg’s Beijing bureau and was detained in China for over a year. These media organizations try to protect their journalists. You say [WSJ] actively wanted to discourage you [from running]. Is that because they genuinely thought about your security and wanted to avoid a second Evan Gershkovich case? Why do you think [WSJ] did this knowing it would cause such a big backlash?
SC: I don't think it has anything to do with my security, because if it was to do with my security, they wouldn't have fired me. I think it is more about the company's security and maybe by extension, the security of their other staff … The pro-Beijing press has very quickly jumped onto it to say: “Even the Journal disapproves the HKJ A and agree that they shouldn't be aligned with.” I don't know how you would describe it, “a malignant organization’” ike [HKJA]. Then of course, that directly puts us and our members [in] the crosshairs of the government and gives … this type of narrative. The Journal does have members among us apart from myself so it affects others, [although] I wouldn't say that it affects them very directly at this point.
NOS: WSJ called [your dismissal] a matter of “restructuring”, which somehow sounds like a diplomatic way of putting it, given the criticism from the freedom of press advocates. But what do you think is going to happen next for them and for you?
SC: I think they call it restructuring, because they are unable to say that I'm fired because of union activities. It is constitutionally protected and it is also a criminal act in Hong Kong. So that's why they're not able to say that. I'm going to have to settle a couple of things legally for this incident. So yeah, I have to document and talk to lawyers and things like that. I'll very soon be looking for opportunities to work and do some reporting and hopefully, those come across as well. I think the press around it is going to fizzle out a little bit.
Just one last thing … or the main message that I really wanted to convey is that when Western media operate in a foreign country, they can be a force for good for the press freedom locally as they make use of their relative liberty to explore sensitive subjects. But they can, in some ways, like in my case, chip away at the remaining press freedom in that place. I think it's really important for foreign reporters and their editors and their management to really use that privilege for good.
Ilgin Yorulmaz is a freelance journalist and former 2nd Vice-President of the FCCJ. She also serves as co-chair of the FCCJ Freedom of Press Committee.
