A Chinese journalist jailed for four years after reporting on the outbreak of Covid in Wuhan has been sentenced to a further four years behind bars.
Zhang Zhan, 42, has been charged with “picking quarrels and causing trouble”, the same accusation that led to her imprisonment in December 2020 during the early months of the virus’s outbreak, according to the international press freedom group RSF.
The citizen journalist and lawyer posted first-hand accounts from Wuhan that showed crowded hospitals and empty streets while China publicly downplayed the severity of the virus.
Before Friday’s court hearing, a number of press freedom advocacy groups had urged the world to increase diplomatic pressure on Beijing to release Ms Zhang.
Antoine Bernard, the director of advocacy at RSF, said: “Zhang Zhan should be celebrated as an ‘information hero’. Instead, she is once again being prosecuted by the Chinese regime, fighting for her survival in prison.”
Her supporters have continued to express concern for her deteriorating health after she completed multiple hunger strikes and detention in near-complete isolation.
In January, human rights groups said one of Ms Zhang’s most recent hunger strikes had resulted in her being force-fed through a gastric tube.
‘Baseless charges’
Her supporters were turned away at her trial on Friday, and Mr Peng Yonghe, the lawyer who volunteered to testify in her defence and called her a “true patriot”, was placed under police control.
Aleksandra Bielakow, the Taiwan-based advocacy manager at RSF, said: “Diplomats were barred from her trial, with all details concealed. Her persecution must end.
Beh Lih Yi, the Asia-Pacific director for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, added: “This is the second time Zhang has faced trial on baseless charges that amount to nothing more than a blatant act of persecution for her journalism work.
“Chinese authorities must put an end to the arbitrary detention of Zhang, drop all charges and free her immediately.”
According to the RSF World Press Freedom Index, China has one of the world’s largest populations of imprisoned journalists, with some 123 media workers estimated to be behind bars.
China’s foreign ministry could not be immediately be contacted for comment on Sunday, which could not determine whether Ms Zhang had legal representation.