A Chinese journalist jailed for four years after documenting the early phases of the COVID-19 outbreak from the pandemic’s epicenter was sentenced on Friday to four more years in prison, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Saturday.
Zhang Zhan (張展), 42, was sentenced on a charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” in China, the same charge that led to her December 2020 imprisonment after she posted first-hand accounts from the central city of Wuhan on the early spread of COVID-19, RSF said.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not be immediately reached yesterday for comment.
Photo: Melanie Wang via AP
“She should be celebrated globally as an ‘information hero,’ not trapped in brutal prison conditions,” RSF Asia-Pacific Bureau advocacy manager Aleksandra Bielakowska said in a statement. “Her ordeal and persecution must end. It is more urgent than ever for the international diplomatic community to pressure Beijing for her immediate release.”
Zhang was initially arrested after months of posting accounts, including videos, from crowded hospitals and empty streets that painted a more dire early picture of the disease than the official narrative. Her lawyer at the time, Ren Quanniu (任全牛), said Zhang believed she was “being persecuted for exercising her freedom of speech.”
She went on hunger strike the month after that arrest, according to court documents seen by Reuters, prompting police to strap her hands and force-feed her with a tube, her lawyers said at the time.
Zhang was released in May last year and detained again three months later, eventually being formally arrested and placed in Shanghai’s Pudong Detention Center, RSF said.
Friday’s sentencing followed Zhang’s reporting on China’s human rights abuses, RSF said.
Ren posted on X that the new charges were based on Zhang’s comment on overseas Web, sites and she should not be deemed guilty.
China’s authorities have never publicly specified what activities Zhang was charged for.
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