Selina Cheng, the reporter, mentioned in a information convention Wednesday that she believes the termination is expounded to her position as chair of the group. She mentioned she got here underneath strain from her employer to stop the affiliation.
The day earlier than the HKJA election, Cheng mentioned, her supervisors directed her to withdraw her candidacy and to depart HKJA’s board, of which she has been a member since 2021. She declined their requests.
“[I] was instantly instructed it might be incompatible with my job,” mentioned Cheng. “The editor mentioned workers of the Journal shouldn’t be seen as advocating for press freedom in a spot like Hong Kong, regardless that they’ll in Western international locations, the place it’s already established.”
The HKJA is taken into account a commerce union, and underneath Hong Kong legislation, it’s authorized to be an officer of a union, a proper assured by the Fundamental Regulation, town’s mini-constitution.
In an emailed response, a spokesman for Dow Jones, the guardian firm of the Wall Avenue Journal, confirmed it made “personnel modifications” on Wednesday however mentioned it couldn’t touch upon particular people.
“The Wall Avenue Journal has been and continues to be a fierce and vocal advocate for press freedom in Hong Kong and around the globe,” the spokesman added.
The termination, if linked to Cheng’s place at HKJA, can be the newest indication of how even massive, well-resourced worldwide media organizations are cautious concerning the dangers of working in Hong Kong, a once-freewheeling metropolis that has more and more come to resemble mainland China in its suppression of civil liberties, together with press freedom.
Within the wake of mass protests in 2019, Beijing handed a nationwide safety legislation in Hong Kong that established punishments of as much as life imprisonment for vaguely described crimes, comparable to subversion of state energy and colluding with overseas forces.
These legal guidelines, alongside a brand new set of domestically targeted nationwide safety legal guidelines handed this 12 months, have had the impact of altering each establishment in Hong Kong, from the courts to universities and newsrooms. After the passage of the nationwide safety legislation, the New York Occasions relocated its Hong Kong digital operation to Seoul, saying there was “loads of uncertainty” about what the modifications would imply for its operations and journalism.
Earlier this 12 months, the Wall Avenue Journal mentioned it was shifting its Asia headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore and laid off numerous Hong Kong-based reporters. Cheng’s position was not affected on the time, and she or he continued to be based mostly in and employed within the metropolis. Cheng, 32, coated the Chinese language auto trade, which the Journal has mentioned is considered one of its precedence protection areas. In terminating her on Wednesday, editors cited restructuring, she mentioned.
In an announcement, the HKJA mentioned the Journal is “not alone” in taking this stance and that different elected board members have been “pressured by their employers to face down.” Beforehand, the Journal’s administration in Hong Kong instructed considered one of its now-former reporters, know-how reporter Dan Strumpf, to not run for president of the Overseas Correspondents’ Membership of Hong Kong, citing dangers to the corporate.
The HKJA stays a vocal group advocating for journalists in Hong Kong, each native and overseas. In a chunk earlier this month, the World Occasions, a Chinese language state mouthpiece, mentioned it had a “spotty historical past of colluding with separatist politicians and instigating riots in Hong Kong” and was “certainly not knowledgeable group representing the Hong Kong media.”
The World Occasions highlighted Cheng’s reporting for the Journal, which it mentioned attacked the nationwide safety legislation, and the reporting of two different board members: James Griffiths, a correspondent for the Canadian-based Globe and Mail, and Theodora Yu, a freelancer who was a former worker of The Washington Put up.
Hong Kong safety chief Chris Tang Ping-keung has additionally attacked the HKJA, saying it had stood with the “black-clad violent mob” through the 2019 protests.
In its assertion, the HKJA known as on all media retailers working in China “to permit their workers to freely advocate for press freedom and higher working circumstances in solidarity with fellow journalists in Hong Kong and China.”
