- Citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, 37, was sentenced to four years in prison on Monday for her reporting work in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China.
- She was convicted of “provoking fights and causing problems”, a “broadly defined” charge “often used by the police to crack down on dissidents”, according to the South China Morning Post.
- The UN Human Rights Office said Zhang’s sentence was “deeply worrying”.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
A Chinese court sentenced a citizen journalist to four years in prison on Monday for her work as a Wuhan journalist during the early days of the coronavirus outbreak.
Zhang Zhan, 37, was convicted of “creating fights and causing problems” by the New Pudong New People’s Court in Shanghai, according to the Associated Press.
The South China Morning Post explained that the charge is “broadly defined” and “often used by the police to stifle dissent”. Zhan received just a year before the maximum sentence for the charge.
The AP reports that Zhan traveled to Wuhan in February to report how the outbreak was affecting the city.
—UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) December 28, 2020
During his time in Wuhan, Zhan posted short video clips on YouTube, including interviews with Wuhan residents and images from hospitals, a crematorium and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to Reuters.
In mid-May, she was arrested and charged with spreading false information, giving interviews to foreign media, disturbing public order and “maliciously” manipulating the outbreak, the AP reports.
In a tweet on Monday, the United Nations Human Rights Office said it was “deeply concerned” about Zhang’s sentence.
“We raised her case with the authorities throughout 2020 as an example of the excessive repression of freedom of expression linked to COVID-19 and continue to call for her release,” said the tweet.
“I don’t understand. All she did was say a few real words and so she was four years old,” Zhang’s mother, Shao Wenxia, told Reuters after her sentence on Monday.
Zhang’s lawyer, Ren Quanniu, told Reuters he would “probably appeal” to the decision.
“Ms. Zhang believes that she is being persecuted for exercising her freedom of expression,” said Quanniu before the trial.
One of Zhang’s other lawyers, Zhang Keke, said before the sentence that his client was “physically fragile” due to a “long-term hunger strike”, according to NBC News.
“When I met her a few days ago, her hands were tied around her waist and a nasogastric tube was inserted into her nose,” he said.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, tweeted Monday that China tried to avoid Western media coverage by scheduling the trial during the Christmas holiday period.
“Beijing’s selection of the sleep period between Christmas and New Year suggests that it is embarrassing to sentence citizen journalist Zhang Zhan to four years in prison for chronicling the uncensored version of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan,” he tweeted. Roth.
Foreign journalists were also banned from the trial “due to the epidemic,” according to Reuters.
China was accused of hiding the true extent of the outbreak in its early days, letting the virus get out of hand and turning into a pandemic that continues to spread around the world a year later.
Other Chinese journalists who disappeared during the report on the outbreak include Fang Bin, who has not been seen since February, according to NBC News. Chen Qiushi disappeared in the same month and is now under close surveillance and will not speak publicly, according to the South China Morning Post. Another journalist, Li Zehua, reappeared after two months disappeared to say he was forcibly quarantined, NBC News reported.