Chinese journalist covering COVID-19 pandemic jailed for 4 years

An independent Chinese journalist who reported from Wuhan in the midst of the initial outbreak of COVID-19 was sentenced to 4 years in prison by a Shanghai court, her lawyer said. Writes about it CNN.

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Zhang Zhan, 37, was found guilty of "provoking quarrels and trouble," according to one of her lawyers, Zhang Keke, who attended the hearing. This crime is commonly used by the Chinese government to persecute dissidents and human rights defenders.

Zhang traveled about 400 miles from Shanghai to Wuhan in early February to break news of the pandemic and efforts to contain it, while authorities began to contain state and private Chinese media.

For more than three months, she documented excerpts from life in isolation in Wuhan and the harsh reality faced by its residents, from overcrowded hospitals to empty shops. She posted her observations, photos and videos on Wechat, Twitter and YouTube, the last two of which are blocked in China.

Her publications stopped abruptly in mid-May, and it was later revealed that she was detained by the police and returned to Shanghai. According to Amnesty International, Zhang went on a hunger strike at some point during her detention, during which she was shackled and force-fed, which the group said amounted to torture.

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Her lawyer, Zhang Keke, posted on social media that Zhang had a feeding tube attached to her nose and mouth. He said that her hands were tied to prevent her from pulling out the device, and that she suffers from constant headaches and pain in her stomach and throat.

Zhang's lawyer said she attended the hearing on Monday, December 28, in a wheelchair, as she became weak during her detention.

In an indictment, prosecutors accused her of "publishing large amounts of false information" and interviewing foreign media outlets, including Radio Free Asia and the Epoch Times, in order to "maliciously fan the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan."

But Zhang's lawyer said the prosecutors did not provide any specific evidence of the "fake information" Zhang was accused of fabricating during the trial. He added that his client, in protest, hardly spoke at the trial and refused to plead guilty.

Zhang is the first citizen journalist known to have been convicted for her role in covering the COVID-19 pandemic. But this is not her first meeting with the authorities.

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According to her indictment, in 2019 she was detained twice for 10 days for "starting quarrels and provoking trouble", but the document does not specify what led to her detention.

One of many

Zhang is one of a number of independent reporters who have been detained or gone missing in China since the start of the pandemic as authorities have restricted coverage of the virus and propaganda outlets have become overzealous in portraying Beijing's response to the pandemic as effective and timely.

In February, Chen Qiushi disappeared after live-streaming videos from Wuhan during the city's lockdown and posting messages on social media. In September it was reported that it was under "state control". Two other independent journalists, Li Zehua and Fan Bing, were also detained after covering the outbreak in Wuhan.

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“Under the pretext of fighting the novel coronavirus, Chinese authorities have tightened controls on the internet, blocking independent reporting, information sharing, and critical government commentary,” the Hong Kong-based group China Human Rights Defenders said in a report.

According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), China is the country with the most arrests of journalists, while blocking most foreign media outlets with firewalls, extensive online censorship and surveillance.

In March, China expelled journalists from the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal in an unprecedented move against the foreign press. Beijing said the move - which came amid criticism of China's initial response to the coronavirus - was in response to Washington's recent restrictions on how Chinese state media operates in the United States.

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