A citizen journalist jailed for her coverage of China’s initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan is close to death after going on a hunger strike, her family said, prompting renewed calls from rights groups for her immediate release.
Zhang Zhan (張展), 38, a former lawyer, traveled to Wuhan in February last year to report on the chaos at the pandemic’s epicenter, questioning authorities’ handling of the outbreak in her smartphone videos.
She was detained in May last year and sentenced in December to four years in jail for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” — a charge routinely used to suppress dissent.
Photo: AP
She is now severely underweight and “may not live for much longer,” her brother, Zhang Ju (張舉), wrote last week on a Twitter account verified by people close to the matter.
Zhang Zhan has been on a hunger strike and was force-fed through nasal tubes, her legal team, which did not have information on her current condition, told reporters earlier this year.
“She may not survive the coming cold winter,” Zhang Ju wrote, adding that he had urged his sister in letters to “take care of herself.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
“In her heart, it seems there is only God and her beliefs, with no care for anything else,” he wrote.
Zhang Ju’s posts sparked fresh calls for his sister’s release, with Amnesty International on Thursday urging the Chinese government to “release her immediately so that she can end her hunger strike and receive the appropriate medical treatment she desperately needs.”
Amnesty International campaigner Gwen Lee said in a statement that Zhang Zhan’s detention was a “shameful attack on human rights.”
Someone close to the citizen journalist, who declined to be named, told reporters that the family had asked to meet Zhang Zhan more than three weeks ago at the Shanghai women’s prison where she is being held, but had not received a response.
Reporters were unable to reach Zhang Ju, while Zhang Zhan’s mother declined to comment.
The Shanghai prison also offered no response when approached by reporters.
Zhang Zhan now cannot walk or even raise her head without help, Reporters without Borders (RSF) said.
RSF East Asia Bureau head Cedric Alviani said that the “international community [must] apply pressure to the Chinese regime and secure Zhang Zhan’s immediate release before it is too late.”
“She was only performing her duty as a reporter and should never have been detained, not to mention receive a four-year prison sentence,” Alviani said.
Zhang is among four citizen journalists — Chen Qiushi (陳秋實), Fang Bin (方斌) and Li Zehua (李澤華) — detained after reporting on the pandemic from Wuhan.
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