A Chinese journalist jailed for four years after documenting the early phases of the COVID-19 outbreak from the pandemic's epicentre was sentenced to four more years in prison.
According to Reuters, 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.
China's Foreign Ministry could not be immediately reached on Sunday for comment. Reuters could not determine 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."
Zhang was initially 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. Her lawyer at the time, Ren Quanniu, said Zhang believed she was "being persecuted for exercising her freedom of speech."
She went on hunger strike the month after that arrest, according to court documents seen by Reuters, prompting police to strap her hands and force-feed her with 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 Center.
