Chinese journalist jailed for reporting on Wuhan Covid-19 pandemic “near death”

• Zhang Zhan was sentenced to four years in prison for reporting on Covid-19 in Wuhan earlier.
• Her family warned that Zhan was dying due to a hunger strike and that he would not be able to survive the winter.
• International organizations called for her release and called her sentence a “shameful attack on human rights.”
• For more stories, please visit Business Insider.

The report stated that a Chinese citizen journalist was sentenced to jail for reporting on the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, and she is in danger of dying from a hunger strike.

38-year-old former lawyer Zhang Zhan was sentenced Four years in prison in December After she went to Wuhan in February 2020 to record what happened there.

She posted on social media about government officials detaining independent journalists and harassing the families of Covid-19 patients.

She disappeared in May 2020 and was found detained by the Chinese authorities.

In December last year, she was convicted of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. The charges are wide-ranging and have been used in the past. Muzzle dissent.

The indictment alleges that she posted “false information” on social media, British Broadcasting Corporation Said.

In June last year, Zhan started a hunger strike during his detention. He was seriously ill and had to sit in a wheelchair for trial. Amnesty International Said.

Her lawyer claimed that she was sometimes restricted and forced to feed through a feeding tube. protector Report.

Last week, her brother Zhang Ju wrote on Twitter that his sister now weighs about 39 kilograms.

Her family told Amnesty International that if she was not released for medical reasons, they did not expect her to survive the winter.

Without help, she can no longer walk normally or raise her head. Reporters Without Borders Said.

“Zhang Zhan, who shouldn’t have been in jail, now seems to be facing serious risk of death in prison. The Chinese authorities must release her immediately, let her end the hunger strike, and receive appropriate treatment needs if she is desperate,” Amnesty International Chinese activist Gwen Lee said.

“The Chinese government sued Zhang Zhan just because she tried to expose what happened in Wuhan in the government’s huge secrecy of the pandemic, which is a shameful attack on human rights.”

China ranks 177th out of 2 180 countries021 RSF World Press Freedom Index, And is the world’s largest reporter kidnapper, with at least 122 people detained.

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