China jails citizen journalist who reported on brutal Wuhan coronavirus crackdown

Zhang Zhan is among the 47 journalists facing trial for threatening the official narrative of Beijing’s response to the pandemic

File Image: Democracy activist Lee Cheuk-Yan speaks outside China’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong on December 28, 2020, during a protest calling on China to free a group of Hong Kong activists, as well as Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan (AFP via Getty Images)

A Chinese citizen journalist has been jailed for four years for her reports on the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan. 

Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer, was found guilty of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” for covering the initial stages of the pandemic.

Zhang’s is the first known conviction of someone who reported the early attempts of the state authorities to manage the outbreak of the coronavirus.  

“We will probably appeal,” the lawyer, Ren Quanniu, told Reuters. “Ms Zhang believes she is being persecuted for exercising her freedom of speech,” Mr Quanniu had told the news agency.  

In her coverage, Zhang posted numerous coronavirus related stories on her social media accounts, including the impact of the pandemic on the local businesses, the detention of other independent journalists and the harassment of victims’ families who sought accountability from the government over the outbreak.  

The verdict has been described as part of an attempt by China to punish those who exposed the government’s efforts to contain information about the virus.  

Zhang was detained in mid-May, after which she went on hunger strike in protest. One of her lawyers, speaking on condition of anonymity to CBS News earlier this month, said that she was strapped to a bed and force-fed through a gastric tube.  

She was formally indicted last month, on charges of spreading false information about the novel virus and for accepting “interviews with overseas media Radio Free Asia and Epoch Times” and for maliciously stirring up the Wuhan epidemic situation. Zhang has denied all the charges.  

The verdict also comes weeks before an international team of World Health Organisation experts is expected to arrive in China to probe the origins of the coronavirus.  

Earlier in December, the Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent press freedom advocacy organisation, slammed China for arresting 47 journalists over coverage of the pandemic that “threatened the official narrative of Beijing’s response”. In its report, the CPJ pointed out that of the 47 detainees, many are serving a long sentence “without any charge disclosed".