A Hong Kong court has found Dow Jones Publishing, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, guilty of obstructing a former reporter from assuming a leadership role in a journalists' union, though it cleared the company of unlawfully terminating her employment.
The ruling, issued on September 10 by principal magistrate David Cheung, addressed charges stemming from the dismissal of Selina Cheng, a reporter who covered China’s automobile and energy sectors. Cheng was elected chair of the Hong Kong Journalist Association (HKJA) in 2024 but was dismissed weeks later, reportedly under the pretext of company restructuring.
The court concluded that Dow Jones had unlawfully deterred Cheng from exercising her rights under Hong Kong’s Trade Unions Ordinance by requiring her to seek prior approval before taking up the union position—a request that the magistrate said would have likely been denied. Cheung noted that the company informed Cheng she would lose her job if she assumed the HKJA chairmanship. The company was acquitted on the second charge which alleged that it dismissed Cheng explicitly because she exercised trade union rights. The magistrate said that a genuine redundancy due to restructuring could not be excluded beyond a reasonable doubt.
Cheng initiated a private prosecution against Dow Jones after her July 2024 termination. She claimed that senior editors at the paper had instructed her not to engage in press freedom advocacy or to maintain her union role, suggesting these activities could present a conflict of interest in Hong Kong’s increasingly restrictive media environment.
In court, the defense argued that Cheng’s dismissal resulted from redundancy linked to organizational changes and contested the claim that senior management directed her supervisor to obstruct Cheng’s union involvement. The defense also accused Cheng of acting in bad faith during earlier proceedings.
Magistrate Cheung, however, found that the application of the company’s code of conduct requiring prior approval for union membership was unjustified and motivated Cheng’s termination. He described Cheng as “honest and reliable” and acknowledged her motivation as a pursuit of justice.
The HKJA, founded in 1968 and registered as a trade union representing journalists and media workers, has faced escalating pressures following the imposition of a Beijing-backed national security law in 2020, which has coincided with a sharp decline in Hong Kong’s global press freedom ranking.
The Wall Street Journal maintains that the dismissal was unrelated to Cheng’s union role. A spokesperson emphasized the company’s ongoing commitment to press freedom and its respect for labor laws in Hong Kong while highlighting changes to its Asia operations in 2024 that shifted its regional hub from Hong Kong to Singapore. This restructuring led to the departure of several Hong Kong-based employees, including Cheng, the statement said.
Cheng said the case draws attention to union suppression and employment rights violations in Hong Kong, warning that inadequate legal protections for reporters undermine their ability to work safely in the city’s tightening media landscape.
Sentencing for Dow Jones is expected at a later date, with each of the two charges carrying a maximum fine of HK$100,000 (approximately US$12,750).