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Chinese journalist, received another four-year prison sentence for reporting on COVID-19 and human rights abuses, as highlighted by RSF and Committee to Protect Journalists.
The WHO rates its global health risk as low, and current vaccines are expected to be effective.
A Chinese journalist who had already served four years in prison for documenting the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak at its epicentre was on Friday handed another four-year sentence, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Journalist, Zhang Zhan, 42, was sentenced on a charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” in China, the same charge that led to her December 2020 imprisonment after she posted first-hand accounts from the central city of Wuhan on the early spread of coronavirus, the international press freedom group, known by its French initials RSF, said on Saturday.
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China’s Foreign Ministry could not be reached for comment on Sunday, and Reuters was unable to confirm whether the citizen journalist had legal representation.
“She should be celebrated globally as an ‘information hero’, not trapped in brutal prison conditions,” RSF Asia-Pacific advocacy manager Aleksandra Bielakowska said in a statement.
“Her ordeal and persecution must end. It is more urgent than ever for the international diplomatic community to pressure Beijing for her immediate release.”
Initially, Zhang was arrested after months of posting accounts, including videos, from crowded hospitals and empty streets that painted a more dire early picture of the disease than the official narrative. According to her lawyer at the time, Ren Quanniu, Zhang believed she was “being persecuted for exercising her freedom of speech”.
As per the court documents reviewed by Reuters, she began a hunger strike a month after her arrest, during which police restrained her hands and force-fed her through a tube, her lawyers said at the time.
Zhang was released in May 2024 and detained again three months later, eventually being formally arrested and placed in Shanghai’s Pudong Detention Centre, RSF said.
According to RSF, Friday’s sentencing came after Zhang reported on human rights abuses in China. Her former lawyer, Ren, wrote on X that the new charges stemmed from Zhang’s comments on overseas websites and argued that she should not be found guilty.
China’s authorities have never publicly specified what activities Zhang was charged for.
“This is the second time Zhang Zhan has faced trial on baseless charges that amount to nothing more than a blatant act of persecution for her journalism work,” said Beh Lih Yi, Asia-Pacific director for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. “Chinese authorities must put an end to the arbitrary detention of Zhang, drop all charges, and free her immediately.”
RSF reported that China holds the world’s largest number of imprisoned journalists, with at least 124 media workers currently behind bars. In the 2025 RSF World Press Freedom Index, the country ranked 178th out of 180 nations and territories.
A week before Zhang’s latest Sentencing, China’s top lawmakers passed a bill to accelerate public health emergency responses by allowing people to report emergencies, bypassing the government’s usual hierarchical structure.
(With inputs from Reuters)
China
September 21, 2025, 21:12 IST
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