Hong Kong court convicts Wall Street Journal publisher in union rights case

A Hong Kong court convicted Dow Jones of deterring reporter Selina Cheng from taking a union role. The ruling sharpens scrutiny of press freedom and labour rights in the city.

In Short

• Court acquitted the company on a separate charge over Cheng's dismissal
• Cheng brought the private prosecution after losing her job in July
• Her supervisor reportedly called the union election bid problematic and incompatible

A Hong Kong court on Thursday convicted Dow Jones Publishing Co (Asia) Inc, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, of deterring one of its reporters from taking up a trade union role, in a case that has raised concerns about press freedom in the city. The court, however, acquitted the company on a separate charge of dismissing the reporter over the union role.

The case was brought by former Wall Street Journal reporter Selina Cheng, who is also chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association. Cheng launched a private prosecution against the company after losing her job in July 2024, at a time when Hong Kong's media landscape has changed sharply in recent years.

Principal Magistrate David Cheung convicted the defendant on the first charge, but said the defence had raised sufficient reasonable doubt on the second. Dow Jones had pleaded not guilty last year to two charges under Hong Kong's Employment Ordinance, each carrying a maximum fine of 100,000 Hong Kong dollars, or about USD 12,750. The first charge alleged that the company had prevented or deterred Cheng from exercising her union participation rights. The second alleged that it terminated her employment for exercising those rights.

Earlier, Cheng had said her supervisor told her that her participation in the union election was "problematic" and that the supervisor needed to discuss the issue with the Journal's management in New York and Dow Jones' in-house lawyers. Cheng said she was also told that her union role would be incompatible with her employment.

During the trial, the defence argued that Cheng had been terminated because of redundancy and said the prosecution had not sufficiently proved that the firm's management had instructed Cheng's supervisor. The defence also accused Cheng of acting in bad faith in a previous hearing. Sentencing is expected at a later date.

Cheng's termination in 2024 alarmed many journalists, especially as foreign news organisations have traditionally faced less pressure than local outlets in Hong Kong. After Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020, two local outlets known for critical coverage of the government, Apple Daily and Stand News, were forced to shut after the arrest of their senior management.

Jimmy Lai, founder of Apple Daily, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in February. His staffers received prison terms ranging from six years and nine months to 10 years. Hong Kong, a former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997, ranked 140th out of 180 countries and territories in Reporters Without Borders' latest World Press Freedom Index, down from 18th out of 139 regions in 2002. The court's ruling in Cheng's case comes against this wider backdrop of pressure on the city's media and follows her challenge to the circumstances of her dismissal.

With PTI Inputs

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