China Jails Citizen-Journalist for 4 Years Over Covid Reporting

A Chinese court on Monday has sentenced a citizen-journalist to 4 years in jail for her reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic that would at times challenge the government’s official narrative on the spread of virus. 

Zhang Zhan, a journalist based in Wuhan, is the first known person to be handed a four-year jail term for reporting on the pandemic, according to Reuters. She was among a handful of people whose firsthand accounts from crowded hospitals and empty streets painted a narrative much more dramatic than the one given by the Chinese Communist Party.

Zhan’s lawyer, Ren Quanniu, claims the sentence handed to his client by the Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court came on the grounds of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”

Quanniu stated before the trial that “Ms Zhang believes she is being persecuted for exercising her freedom of speech.”

“I don’t understand. All she did was say a few true words, and for that she got four years,” said Shao Wenxia, Zhang’s mother.

As Zero Hedge notes, the verdict is a warning to all journalists in the country that the communist government is coming after those who exposed their shortcomings during the initial months of the virus outbreak.

More from Reuters:

Critics say that China deliberately arranged for Zhang’s trial to take place during the Western holiday season to minimize Western attention and scrutiny. U.S. President Donald Trump has regularly criticised Beijing for covering up the emergence of what he calls the “China virus”.

The United Nations human rights office called in a tweet for Zhang’s release.

“We raised her case with the authorities throughout 2020 as an example of the excessive clampdown on freedom of expression linked to #COVID19 & continue to call for her release,” it said.

Criticism of China’s early handling of the crisis has been censored, and whistle-blowers such as doctors warned. State media have credited the country’s success in reining in the virus to the leadership of President Xi Jinping.

China took a hardline stance against “non-approved” reporting at the start of the virus outbreak by threatening to “severely” punishing any public or online reporting about the spread of the epidemic in what would amount to a “wartime” effort to control the narrative.

The New York Post reported in February:

With the epidemic spreading throughout China, the Ministry of Public Security, which controls all of the police departments in the country, has swung into action. A Feb. 28 directive ordered all police throughout the country to make “wartime preparations.”

The police are to “maintain social stability” by “severely” punishing any public or online reporting about the spread of the epidemic. They are also to help “control the disease” by enforcing quarantine orders and helping to speed the distribution of medical supplies.

In other words, China’s leaders know they have a national emergency on their hands but, for political reasons, are still trying to control the narrative by downplaying the seriousness of the epidemic

Reports would follow of the detainment of citizen journalist Chen Qiushi, 34, who went missing after violating censorship laws to provide a live broadcast on the status of the virus in Wuhan.

Chen’s family would claim that he went to a hospital with his friends but never returned.

“I am scared,” said Chen in one of his later broadcasts. “I have the virus in front of me, and on my back I have the legal and administrative power of China.”

Close friend and well known mixed martial artist, Xu Xiaodong, claims that Chen was forcibly quarantined by authorities, according to India Today.

“The No. 1 reason our government couldn’t control this is because they always conceal the truth and block information from citizens,” said migrant worker Gao Fei, who was detained after criticizing Chinese President Xi Jinping’s response to the virus.

Gao, a welder who had rushed home from southern China right before the lockdown, went to hospitals and drugstores and shared what he saw online. After tweeting that Xi’s measures were against humanity, he was detained with drug users and a “rumormonger” who pointed out overcrowded hospitals.

He admires Chen’s bravery and push for social progress. “He’s the spine, the backbone of China,” Gao said. –Business Insider

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