Hong Kong Court Convicts WSJ Publisher Over Reporter's Union Role

A Hong Kong court on Thursday convicted the publisher of The Wall Street Journal of deterring one of its reporters from taking up a trade union role, in a case that has drawn attention to press freedom conditions in the city.

Dow Jones Publishing Co. (Asia) Inc. was acquitted of a separate charge alleging dismissal over the union role, the court said.

The prosecution was brought privately by Selina Cheng, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who also chairs the Hong Kong Journalists Association. Cheng lost her job in July 2024 and subsequently launched legal action against the company.

According to Cheng's earlier account, her supervisor told her that her participation in a union election was problematic and that the matter needed to be discussed with the Journal's management in New York and Dow Jones' in-house lawyers. She said she was informed that holding a union role would be incompatible with her employment.

Dow Jones had pleaded not guilty last year to two charges under the city's Employment Ordinance. Each charge carries a maximum fine of HK$100,000 (about $12,750). The first accused the company of preventing or deterring Cheng from exercising her union participation rights. The second alleged that it terminated her employment for exercising those rights.

During the trial, the defense sought to persuade the court that Cheng was let go because of redundancy and argued that the prosecution had not sufficiently shown that the firm's management gave instructions to Cheng's supervisor. The defense also accused Cheng of acting in bad faith in an earlier hearing.

The case unfolds against a backdrop of significant change in Hong Kong's media environment. Once regarded as a bastion of press freedom in Asia, the city has seen news outlets forced to close and newsroom leaders prosecuted in recent years.