The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has accused the head of a Hong Kong journalists’ union of abusing the legal process by holding the newspaper criminally liable for her dismissal only after her “extortionate” HK$3 million (US$385,500) proposal for settlement was rejected.
Lawyers for Dow Jones Publishing Co (Asia) told Eastern Court on Thursday that Selina Cheng Kar-yue’s complaint alleging the American news outlet violated Hong Kong labour laws was driven by private interests and bad faith.
“We’re saying Ms Selina Cheng is only after the HK$3 million,” Benson Tsoi Yat-ming SC said on behalf of the defence. “She couldn’t get the mediation. She couldn’t get the money. That’s why she filed the complaint.”
Cheng, a former WSJ reporter, has accused her ex-employer of engaging in acts “calculated to prevent or deter” her from exercising her right to become a board member of the Hong Kong Journalists Association between June 21 and 22 last year.
Dow Jones Publishing Co (Asia), a subsidiary of the company that hires WSJ employees in the region, has denied two violations of the Employment Ordinance.
On the first day of hearing, Tsoi said his team would apply for a permanent stay of proceedings, alleging that Cheng initiated the present case only because the company refused to comply with her demands.
