Zhang Zhan, a 37-year-old citizen journalist who reported on crowded hospitals and conditions in Wuhan earlier this year, was sentenced on Monday to four years for the crime of “fighting and causing problems,” the reports said.
Reuters, quoting her lawyer, said there was likely to be an appeal and said her client believed she was “being pursued for exercising her freedom of speech”.
A pro-democracy activist holds posters with a photo of Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan outside the central Chinese government liaison office in Hong Kong. (AP Photo / Kin Cheung)
The New York Times reported that the prison sentence is likely to be seen as a “harsh warning for those who challenge the government’s official narrative about the pandemic.”
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President Trump blamed China for dealing with the virus in the early stages. He said it was because of Beijing’s inadequate management that the disease spread so quickly around the world.
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In June, senior Chinese officials released an extensive report on the country’s response and defended Beijing’s actions.
“The Chinese government has not delayed or covered up anything,” said the chairman of the National Health Commission, Ma Xiaowei. “Instead, we immediately communicated data about the virus and relevant information about the epidemic to the international community and made an important contribution to the prevention and control of the epidemic worldwide.”
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The Reuters report said that Zhang posted videos on YouTube showing interviews with residents and images from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
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She criticized the response and ended up in prison in May. “The government’s way of running this city has only been intimidation and threats,” she said in a video, according to the Times. “This is truly the tragedy of this country.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report