Wall Street Journal fires reporter who led Hong Kong Journalist Association

Former Wall Street Journal reporter Selina Cheng claims she was fired after refusing to step down from her role as chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, a press advocacy group accused by Chinese state media of destabilizing the city.

Cheng on social media Wednesday said a supervisor had told her that helming HKJA would be “incompatible” with her position, and she was terminated three weeks later. The Journal’s publisher said only that it had made “personnel changes,” the Washington Post reported.

In a statement, HKJA said other media outlets had discouraged their reporters from advocating for press freedom at the association and at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club, out of fear of retaliation from local authorities.

The incident is the latest to rock Hong Kong’s once-vibrant press corps since the implementation of the city’s draconian National Security Law, which criminalized virtually any speech critical of Beijing. Cheng said she is “deeply shocked” that the Journal appears to fear press advocacy in Hong Kong, even as it champions press freedom in other countries such as Russia, where its reporter Evan Gershkovich remains in prison.