China jails journalist over Wuhan COVID outbreak reporting

Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan has received a prison sentence for her reporting from Wuhan during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, according to her lawyer.


Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan began a hunger strike in June

China sentenced citizen journalist Zhang Zhan to four years in prison after a brief hearing in Shanghai on Monday, her lawyer told reporters. Zhang, 37, covered the coronavirus outbreak from its initial epicenter in Wuhan in February.

Her widely shared video livestreams and essays detailed overcrowded crematoriums and hospitals as Chinese authorities struggled to contain the virus.

Zhang, a former lawyer based in Shanghai, was convicted of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," a common charge used against government critics in China.

"Zhang Zhan looked devastated when the sentence was announced," her lawyer Ren Quanniu told reporters outside the Shanghai Pudong New District People's Court.
Reframing the pandemic

Zhang is the first journalist put on trial for her coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. However, three other citizen journalists who reported from Wuhan — Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua — have all been missing since February. Eight whistleblowers have already been punished for criticizing the government's response to the pandemic.

Zhang was critical of the Chinese government's initial handling of the outbreak in Wuhan, writing that authorities "didn't give people enough information, then simply locked down the city."


WUHAN: A YEAR AFTER THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK
Shoulder to shoulder in crowded markets
Wuhan was locked down for about 11 weeks after becoming the first global coronavirus hot spot. Until mid-May, 50,000 of the 80,000 official cases in China were in Wuhan. But now life is almost back to normal on the city's crowded street markets.
PHOTOS 1234567

China has come under fire for its secretive approach to combating the COVID-19. Beijing has of late sought to present its handling of the pandemic as an "extraordinary" success. After the virus first emerged in Wuhan late last year, and the city of 11 million went into lockdown in February, China's society and economy are rebounding while much of the rest of the world struggles through painful winter surges in infections.

Zhang's trial comes weeks before a team of experts from the World Health Organization is due to arrive in Wuhan to investigate the origins of the coronavirus outbreak.
Worries over Zhang's health

Concerns have been growing over Zhang's health after she began a hunger strike in June.

"She said when I visited her [last week]: 'If they give me a heavy sentence then I will refuse food until the very end.' ... She thinks she will die in prison," Ren said before the trial. "It's an extreme method of protesting against this society and this environment."

Another lawyer, Zhang Keke, who visited her on Christmas Day, wrote in a note circulated on social media that she was "restrained 24 hours a day" and her health was in decline: "She feels psychologically tormented, like every day is a torment."

dr/rt (AFP, dpa)