Chinese journalist jailed over Covid reporting is ‘close to death’, family say

Citizen reporter Zhang Zhan, 38, was arrested and jailed after reporting on the outbreak

This file screengrab taken on 28 December, 2020 from an undated video posted shows former Chinese lawyer and citizen journalist Zhang Zhan as she broadcasts via YouTube, at an unconfirmed location in China. 

Photograph: YOUTUBE/AFP/Getty Images

Agence France-Presse
Fri 5 Nov 2021

A citizen journalist jailed for her coverage of China’s initial response to Covid in Wuhan is close to death after going on hunger strike, her family said, prompting renewed calls from rights groups for her immediate release.

Zhang Zhan, 38, a former lawyer, travelled to Wuhan in February 2020 to report on the chaos at the pandemic’s centre, questioning authorities’ handling of the outbreak in her smartphone videos.

She was detained in May 2020 and sentenced in December to four years in jail for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – a charge routinely used to suppress dissent.

She is now severely underweight and “may not live for much longer”, her brother Zhang Ju wrote last week on a Twitter account verified by people close to the matter.

“Zhan is 177cm tall, now she has less than 40kg wt. She may not survive the coming cold winter,” Zhang Ju wrote on 30 October. “I hope the world remember how she used to be,” he added.


Zhang has been on a hunger strike and was force-fed through nasal tubes, her legal team, which did not have information on her current condition, told Agence France-Presse earlier this year.

Zhang Ju’s posts sparked fresh calls for his sister’s release, with Amnesty International urging the Chinese government to “release her immediately so that she can end her hunger strike and receive the appropriate medical treatment she desperately needs”.

The human rights organisation said Zhang “is at risk of dying if she is not urgently released to receive medical treatment” in a statement released on Thursday.

“Zhang Zhan, who should never have been jailed in the first place, now appears to be at grave risk of dying in prison. The Chinese authorities must release her immediately so that she can end her hunger strike and receive the appropriate medical treatment she desperately needs,” Amnesty campaigner Gwen Lee added, describing her detention as a “shameful attack on human rights”.

“If Zhang Zhan dies in prison, her blood will be on the Chinese government’s hands,” Lee added.

Someone close to the citizen journalist, who declined to be named, told AFP the family had asked to meet Zhang more than three weeks ago at the Shanghai women’s prison where she is being held but had not received a response.

AFP was unable to reach Zhang Ju while Zhang’s mother declined to comment. The Shanghai prison also offered no response when approached by AFP.

Zhang now cannot walk or even raise her head without help, according to Reporters without Borders (RSF).

RSF east Asia Bureau head, Cedric Alviani, said the “international community (must) apply pressure to the Chinese regime and secure Zhang Zhan’s immediate release before it is too late.”

A pro-democracy activist holds up a signs in support of Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan who has been sentence to four years in prison and the 12 arrested people in China in Hong Kong, China, 28 December 2020. Photograph: Miguel Candela/EPA
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“She was only performing her duty as a reporter and should never have been detained, not to mention receive a four-year prison sentence.”

China has revelled in its success in keeping domestic infections down to a trickle of sporadic outbreaks. The government has put forward a narrative crediting the Communist party with returning life almost to normal even as death tolls and infections continue to explode in the rest of the world.

But those who threaten the official version by raising questions about the government’s early cover-up and handling of the Wuhan outbreak face the party’s wrath.

Zhang is among a group of four citizen journalists - including Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua - detained after reporting from Wuhan.