BEIJING — A Chinese court sentenced a citizen journalist who reported from Wuhan, the city in which the Covid-19 pandemic is believed to have started, to four years in jail, her lawyer has confirmed.
Zhang Zhan, 37, was one of several citizen journalists whose firsthand accounts from when the virus first emerged nearly a year ago painted a more dire picture of the early outbreak than the government’s official narrative.
Zhang, a former lawyer, arrived in Wuhan in early February from her home in Shanghai to document in a series of online posts how the city was holding up against the new, deadly virus. Some of her posts were critical of the Chinese government’s response.
Zhang was detained in May and accused of spreading false information, giving interviews to foreign media, disrupting social order and attacking the government.
On Monday, she was convicted on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” Zhang’s lawyer, Zhang Keke, who is not related to the citizen journalist, told NBC News on Monday. Zhang did not speak or show any reaction to the court decision, her lawyer said, adding that she did not answer when asked if she wanted to appeal her sentence.
Before the sentencing hearing, Zhang said his client went “on long-term hunger strike” in detention and was being force-fed. (NBC News)
#China: We are deeply concerned by the 4-year prison sentence imposed on citizen journalist Zhang Zhan. We raised her case with the authorities throughout 2020 as an example of the excessive clampdown on freedom of expression linked to #COVID19 & continue to call for her release.
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) December 28, 2020