Records show reporter Selina Cheng was let go from WSJ due to redundancy, HR exec. says in unlawful dismissal suit

2026-03-12 - 23:36

Records show that journalist Selina Cheng was terminated by the Wall Street Journal due to redundancy, a top human resources executive for the newspaper’s parent company has told a Hong Kong court. Rachael Brockman, Vice President of People for EMEA and APAC at Dow Jones International Limited, outside Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on March 12, 2026. Photo: Hillary Leung/HKFP. The unlawful dismissal lawsuit brought by Cheng against Dow Jones Publishing Co. (Asia) Inc., alleging that she was fired in July 2024 because she took a leadership role at the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), entered its 10th day at the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday. The company began its case by summoning Rachael Brockman, the London-based vice president of people for EMEA and APAC at Dow Jones International Limited. Brockman told the court that at the end of the first quarter of 2024, the company decided on a strategy of relocating the centre of the newspaper’s reporting from Hong Kong to Singapore. In response to questions from Benson Tsoi, who is representing the defendant, Brockman said the newspaper went from having 13 reporters in the Hong Kong office in December 2023 to just one by August 2025. Senior Counsel Benson Tsoi (carrying a briefcase) representing Dow Jones in Selina Cheng’s termination suit against the publisher outside Eastern Magistrates’ Court on January 22, 2025. Photo: James Lee/HKFP. As she testified, Brockman referred to spreadsheets that tracked headcount in the Hong Kong office. She said she did not prepare the spreadsheets but had verified the information in them. Representing Cheng, barrister Nigel Kat put the prosecution’s case to Brockman – that the HKJA chair was fired for exercising her right to be an officer of a trade union, which is legally protected under the city’s Employment Ordinance. In response, Brockman said: “Based on my review of the records, I can see that Selina Cheng was made redundant and so her termination was by means of redundancy.” Brockman agreed with Kat that she had “limited involvement” in Cheng’s termination, and that her knowledge of the matter was almost entirely from documents she read in the lead-up to the proceedings. Ex-Wall Street Journal reporter and chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association Selina Cheng outside Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on March 12, 2026. Photo: Hillary Leung/HKFP. She told the court that she had not spoken about the matter to Deborah Ball, Cheng’s supervisor, nor to Gordon Fairclough, the paper’s world coverage chief, who flew to Hong Kong in July 2024 to deliver the news of her termination. Local lawyer not consulted Cheng lodged a private prosecution case against the newspaper after she was terminated a month following her election as chairperson of the HKJA, the city’s largest press group. The newspaper has asserted that financial compensation was Cheng’s motivation for suing the company. The reporter, however, said she took legal action because she wanted to hold her former employer accountable. Also on Thursday, Brockman was asked by Tsoi whether employees at the company would be told anything when they witnessed their co-workers being made redundant. Selina Cheng, chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, speaks to reporters after being fired from The Wall Street Journal, allegedly over her role in the press union, on July 17, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. “We advise all managers not to commit that there won’t be any more redundancies and that we cannot predict what might happen and redundancies happen in many areas of the business throughout the year,” she responded. During the early days of the trial in December, Cheng had testified that Ball told her the layoffs in Hong Kong were “finished” after she survived a round of terminations in May 2024. Kat also raised questions over the company not consulting Andy Lau, Dow Jones Asia’s Hong Kong-based lawyer, before terminating Cheng. Brockman told the court that Lau, as the general counsel for Hong Kong, manages “all legal matters” for the city and the Asia region. But she said “the “in practice,” it is employment attorneys in New York, where the company is headquartered, who are the “first point of contact” when there are uncertainties about the law. Wall Street Journal Corporate Headquarters in New York. File photo: John Wisniewski, via Flickr CC2.0. Kat suggested that Lau should be the first point of contact as he is familiar with Hong Kong law. The HR executive said in response that seeking legal advice from the headquarters is “common” in multinational corporations. Brockman said that in her preparation for the hearings, she had been made aware that deterring an employer from becoming a member of an officer of a trade union is an offence under Hong Kong law. She added that she was “not aware of conversations” or “attempts” to deter Cheng from taking up the press union leadership role. Brockman wrapped up her testimony on Thursday afternoon. The trial will continue on Friday.