International press groups support Cheng, fired by WSJ

Selina Cheng

International press organizations and a top U.S. congressional panel are leading a growing chorus of support for Hong Kong Journalists Association chairwoman Selina Cheng, who said she was fired by The Wall Street Journal for assuming her leadership role in the union, reports Connor Mycroft of the South China Morning Post.

Mycroft reports, “Other press groups that have expressed support for Cheng include the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China, Reporters Without Borders, the US-based Society of Professional Journalists, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, Canada-based Media Action Plan and Women Press Freedom.

“In a social media post on Thursday, the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China said it was ‘tracking concerns’ about Cheng’s firing ‘and the disturbing questions about whether [the Journal] is abetting the erosion of press freedoms’ in the city.

“Hong Kong ranked 135 out of 180 jurisdictions in the latest World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, up from its low of 148 in 2022. The city ranked 18th when the annual report was first launched in 2002.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.