Trolls Target Hong Kong Press Association Chair

In an escalation of attacks on Hong Kong’s leading professional organization for journalists that has persisted for several years, chairperson Selina Cheng (鄭嘉如), re-elected to the post last year, was met this month with a wave of online abuse — including death threats — after speaking out about government pressure on the press.

The attacks followed Cheng’s disclosure on May 4 that Hong Kong’s tax authority had pursued the Hong Kong Journalists Association (記者協會), or HKJA, with a demand of 730,000 Hong Kong dollars in prepaid taxes, while independent media outlets and journalists faced separate audits and backdated demands. Within hours, dozens of newly created accounts with zero followers flooded the social media platform Threads to attack the organization and Cheng personally. Cheng filed a police report over the death threats, but said police told her they were unable to determine what had happened. “I didn’t know Hong Kong police had such limited ability to investigate cases,” she told Pulse.

The HKJA, founded in 1968, has faced sustained pressure since Hong Kong’s 2019 protest movement, when pro-government figures accused it of shielding fake journalists — an accusation it denied. Cheng herself was fired from the Wall Street Journal in 2024 after taking on the chairperson’s role; the paper told her, she has said, that employees “should not be seen as advocating for press freedom in a place like Hong Kong.” The government-run tabloid Ta Kung Pao (大公報) has repeatedly attacked the HKJA by name. Venue after venue has canceled the association’s annual fundraising gala bookings without explanation.

Cheng said the HKJA would not dignify the Threads campaign with a response. “Rebutting them would only dissipate our energy,” she said. “We will only do the work and uphold the values our constitution demands of us.”