Reuters
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A Chinese journalist jailed for 4 years after documenting the early phases of the COVID-19 outbreak from the pandemic’s epicenter was sentenced on Friday to 4 more years in jail, Reporters Without Borders mentioned.
Zhang Zhan, 42, was sentenced on a cost of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” in China, the identical cost that led to her December 2020 imprisonment after she posted first-hand accounts from the central metropolis of Wuhan on the early unfold of coronavirus, the worldwide press freedom group, identified by its French initials RSF, mentioned on Saturday.
China’s Foreign Ministry couldn’t be instantly reached on Sunday for remark. Reuters couldn’t decide whether or not the citizen journalist had authorized illustration.
“She should be celebrated globally as an ‘information hero’, not trapped in brutal prison conditions,” RSF Asia-Pacific advocacy supervisor Aleksandra Bielakowska mentioned in a press release.
“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, together with movies, from crowded hospitals and empty streets that painted a more dire early image of the illness than the official narrative. Her lawyer on the time, Ren Quanniu, mentioned Zhang believed she was “being persecuted for exercising her freedom of speech.”
She went on starvation strike the month after that arrest, in accordance to courtroom paperwork seen by Reuters, prompting police to strap her palms and force-feed her with a tube, her legal professionals mentioned on the time.
Zhang was released in May 2024 and detained once more three months later, finally being formally arrested and positioned in Shanghai’s Pudong Detention Center, RSF mentioned.
Friday’s sentencing adopted Zhang’s reporting on China’s human rights abuses, RSF mentioned. Her former lawyer Ren posted on X that the brand new prices have been based mostly on Zhang’s touch upon abroad web sites and he or she shouldn’t be deemed responsible.
China’s authorities have by no means publicly specified what actions Zhang was charged for.
“This is the second time Zhang Zhan has faced trial on baseless charges that amount to nothing more than a blatant act of persecution for her journalism work,” mentioned Beh Lih Yi, Asia-Pacific director for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. “Chinese authorities must put an end to the arbitrary detention of Zhang, drop all charges, and free her immediately.”
China is the world’s greatest jailer of journalists, with a minimum of 124 media employees behind bars, RSF mentioned. The nation ranked 178th out of 180 nations and territories in the 2025 RSF World Press Freedom Index.
Every week earlier than Zhang’s newest sentencing, China’s high lawmakers handed a invoice to speed up public well being emergency responses by permitting individuals to report emergencies, bypassing the federal government’s normal hierarchical construction.