BREAKING: Wall St Journal publisher guilty of preventing ex-reporter Selina Cheng from running for press union chair
A Hong Kong court has convicted the Wall Street Journal’s publisher of attempting to prevent a former reporter from taking up leadership of an embattled press union, but cleared it of unlawfully firing her. Principal Magistrate David Cheung delivered his ruling to Selina Cheng, a former reporter for the WSJ and chair of the Hong […]
A Hong Kong court convicted the Wall Street Journal's publisher of attempting to stop Selina Cheng, a former reporter and chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, from becoming the union's chairperson. However, the court cleared the publisher of unlawfully firing Cheng. Cheng filed a private prosecution against the WSJ's parent company, Dow Jones Publishing, alleging she was unlawfully dismissed in July 2024 after being elected to lead the press union.
The HKJA has faced scrutiny from authorities and was discredited by the city's security chief. During the trial, Cheng's supervisor and a human resources director were questioned about whether they represented the company when they brought up her leadership bid during discussions about her dismissal. Dow Jones argued that the prosecution hadn't proven the two individuals were instructed by the company's "directing mind and will" in their communications with Cheng.
Cheng was fired in July 2024 on the grounds of redundancy, as the WSJ moved its Asia center from Hong Kong to Singapore.
Written by urgent.news from Hong Kong Free Press's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
