Selina Cheng, a former Hong Kong reporter of The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday said she’ll sue the publication for sacking her because she joined a trade union.
Cheng lost her job in July after a senior editor told her that her position was eliminated due to restructuring.
However, the former reporter believed the termination was linked to her refusal to comply with her supervisor’s request to withdraw from the election for the chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, a trade union for journalists that advocates for press freedom.
Cheng, now the chair of the association, said in a press briefing that she had sought mediation with her former employer through private channels and legal representatives, but their communication was “not fruitful” and her former employer refused to reinstate her job. Associated Press reported
After the failed attempts, Cheng said she would file a civil claim at the Labor Tribunal, saying she had already brought evidence to the city’s Labor Department. In a claim form shown to reporters, she stated she was fired unreasonably and illegally and it was due to her participation in a trade union.
“If the Wall Street Journal regrets this decision and agree that this wasn’t right, there are ways to make repairs, perhaps still,” she said.
Cheng said she would meet with the department’s investigators on Wednesday “to pursue this as a criminal matter.” She requested them to investigate her ex-employer for what she called “likely” violation of the employment ordinance.
Hong Kong journalists work in a narrowing space after drastic political changes in the city that was once seen as a bastion of media freedom in Asia.
The termination of Cheng’s contract in July sent shockwaves among Hong Kong’s media workers. Cheng on Tuesday said her former employer insisted her job loss was a result of redundancy.
“Us being reporters, we hate being lied to by whoever it is, and least of all by our own supervisors and companies,” she said.
The Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees, a union run by and for the employees of Dow Jones, previously said in a statement that if Cheng was fired as what she claimed, the behavior was “unconscionable.” It called on the publication to restore her job and provide full explanation about their decision to dismiss her.
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