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China sentences citizen journalist to four years in prison for Wuhan lockdown reports

Zhang Zhan, a 37-year-old former lawyer and citizen journalist who was arrested in May while reporting from Wuhan, has been sentenced to four years in jail.

Zhang was arrested for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – an accusation commonly used against dissidents, activists and journalists – with her video and blog reports from the Wuhan lockdown. Last month she was charged with disseminating false information.

On Monday afternoon, just hours after the trial began, Zhang’s lawyer said she had been sentenced to four years in jail.

The prosecution of 10 Hong Kongers detained in mainland China after allegedly attempting to flee to Taiwan also began Monday, amid a crackdown apparently timed with the Christmas period to avoid western scrutiny.

The indictment sheet released last week said Zhang had sent “false information through text, video and other media through the internet media such as WeChat, Twitter and YouTube”.
She also accepted interviews from overseas media Free Radio Asia and Epoch Times and maliciously speculated on Wuhan’s Covid-19 epidemic,” it said. A sentence of four to five years was recommended.

After the hearing, Zhang’s lawyer, Zhang Keke said Zhang appeared in court in a wheelchair, and that her mother burst into tears when the verdict was announced.

Zhang has been restrained 24 hours-a-day, and force-fed with a tube after she went on hunger strike, Zhang Keke said earlier this month. Zhang Keke visited again on Christmas day, and in a blog post said his client had lost 15 to 20kg and her hair had been cut short.

Local media reported a heavy police presence outside the Shanghai Pudong courthouse on Monday, pushing journalists and observers away from the entrance as Zhang arrived. Foreign diplomats were reportedly among supporters at the scene.

Zhang had denied the charges and said all her reports about the outbreak response were based on first-hand accounts from locals. Her video reports were often critical of the secrecy and censorship.

“Ordinary people saying something casually in WeChat might be summoned and admonished,” she said in one report. “Because everything is undercover, this is the problem this country is facing now.”

In others, she accused authorities of violating basic rights of people, and called for the release of other citizen journalists who had been arrested for reporting from Wuhan.

Among at least half a dozen citizen journalists targeted in Wuhan, Fang Bin, was arrested in February but his detention location remains secret. Chen Mei and Cai Wei are awaiting trial in Beijing after they were arrested in April for archiving censored information about the virus. Chen Qiushi, detained in Wuhan in February, was released to his parents’ home under close surveillance.

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Source: the guardian