Posted on 07/19/2024 3:29:15 PM PDT by nickcarraway
In short:The Wall Street Journal faces criticism for sacking a journalist who was elected head of the Hong Kong Journalists Association. - Chinese state media celebrated Selina Cheng's sacking, calling the Hong Kong media union "a malignant tumour".
-What's next?Cheng told the ABC she intended to take legal action against the Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong.
The Wall Street Journal faces widespread criticism over its decision to sack a Hong Kong journalist who refused to withdraw from the election for a leadership post in the city's largest media union.
Selina Cheng, who worked in the Journal's Hong Kong bureau as a reporter covering China's automotive and energy sector, said a senior editor told her that her job had been terminated due to a restructure.
But Cheng said she believed the real reason was linked to her decision to run for the chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), a storied trade union that has come under pressure from the Beijing-backed government in recent years.
"My supervisor in the UK directed me to withdraw from the election," Cheng said, adding that the supervisor said it would be "incompatible" with her job.
Cheng said her boss also asked her to quit the association's board, which she has served on since 2021.
"The editor said employees of the Journal should not be seen as advocating for press freedom in a place like Hong Kong," Cheng said in a statement.
The Wall Street Journal, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, said in a statement that it could confirm personnel changes but said "we don't comment on specific individuals".
It declined to answer specific questions from the ABC.
Cheng told the ABC she intended to take legal action against the Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong over her dismissal.
Asked about her motivation for going public, Cheng said she wanted the union's members to see that its leader "will stand for herself and HKJA will, in the same way, stand for reporters they represent".
A spokesperson for the Wall Street Journal said the paper "has been and continues to be a fierce and vocal advocate for press freedom in Hong Kong and around the world".
The ABC understands that Cheng's role will be moved out of Hong Kong.
Chinese state media, meanwhile, celebrated Cheng's sacking, with the Global Times tabloid calling the press union "a malignant tumour that harms the city's safety and security".
Press freedom in Hong Kong has plummeted in recent years.
The territory was ranked 140 out of 180 countries on Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index in 2023 — down from 18th place two decades ago.
"A lot of our peers, almost 20 of them, from HKJA's latest count, have been through trial and were sentenced by judges in Hong Kong," Cheng said.
Associate professor in journalism at the University of Melbourne and former China correspondent Louisa Lim told the ABC that the Wall Street Journal "has behaved in a completely gutless way".
"The Hong Kong Journalists Association is a really reputable association which has been fronted by some of Hong Kong's most respected journalists over the decades," Dr Lim said. "[It] sends a dreadful message to Hongkongers and actually, to journalists all over the world, that we will only support certain kinds of press freedom in certain countries for certain people.
"It seems like they have two different standards: for Evan Gershkovich who is a Wall Street Journal reporter in jail in Russia, and you are seeing dozens of Wall Street Journal reporters campaigning for his release publicly.
"And then you have Selina Cheng who's been told she should not be standing for election and then was sacked because of it. Frankly it seems inexplicable."
Gershkovich has been detained in Russia since March 2023, where authorities accuse him of spying for the US government.
The Wall Street Journal and its reporters have consistently campaigned for his release.
Cheng, who was elected chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association on June 22, said she was "deeply shocked that senior editors at the paper would actively violate their employees' human rights".
Human Rights Watch's China director Maya Wang told the ABC that Cheng had rights under Hong Kong and international law to engage in trade union activity and advocate for freedom of the press.
Ms Wang said the Journal had sent the message that Western media can be intimidated and bullied by authoritarian governments.
The Journal's actions did not only have implications for itself, "but for journalists all over, for all media outlets, that are embattled around the world", she said.
"That kind of misstep sends the message that media organisations can be silenced and muzzled."
Press freedom groups in the US and elsewhere slammed the Journal and called for Cheng's reinstatement.
"Compelling Cheng to abandon her elected union position only serves to further narrow the space for independent journalism in Hong Kong," said the International Federation of Journalists, the global peak body for media unions.
"The global media community must do more to support and advocate for the work of Hong Kong's independent media workers striving to uphold press freedom and improve labour rights."
Speaking to the ABC, Cheng added that: "I hope to use this moment to let the world know that Hong Kong reporters are still here doing their hard work.
"They need the support of everyone who consumes their news."
Murdoch suck up to Chicoms.
Not just him.
Spineless weasels.
Hasn’t China got enough problems with all the flooding?
“Murdoch suck up to Chicoms.”
Yes
You’d think the WSJ would want one of their staff on the reporters’ board, just to keep an eye on things.
The only remaining saving grace with the Wall Street Journal is that the former owners retained control of the WSJ opinion page, which has kept that page out of the hands of the Murdochs.
As a consequence though, more and more you can see “news reports” in the WSJ main pages that are really editorials pretending to be “news”.
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