Chinese Citizen Reporter Faces Up To 5 Years In Jail Over Virus Posts

A [/news/china/index.html Chinese] citizen journalist who sent dispatches about the [/news/coronavirus/index.html coronavirus] outbreak from Wuhan through social media is reportedly facing up to five years in prison.
Zhang Zhan, who criticised the Wuhan government over its handling of the crisis, was detained by police in May on suspicion of 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble', a broad-brush charge often used against activists.
The 37-year-old former lawyer, who was hailed for 'reporting the truth' of the epidemic, has been formally indicted by public prosecutors of Shanghai for allegedly spreading false information, according to court papers circulating online.
Zhang Zhan (pictured) was detained by police in May on suspicion of 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble'. She had travelled to Wuhan to report about the coronavirus outbreak there
The coronavirus was first detected in the city of 11million in central China. Mask-donning resident are pictured wait for medical attention at Wuhan Red Cross Hospital on January 25
RELATED ARTICLES [# Previous] [# 1] [# Next] [/news/article-8953651/Moderna-says-vaccine-94-5-effective-preventing-COVID-19.html Second COVID breakthrough as Moderna says its vaccine is...] [/news/article-8951581/Boris-Johnson-self-isolate-touch-tested-positive-Covid.html Now TEN Tory MPs join Boris Johnson in quarantine as his...] [/news/article-8950053/Calls-former-New-Zealand-PM-investigating-Chinas-Covid-outbreak-response-resign.html Former New Zealand PM who is investigating China's response...] [/news/article-8948653/Danish-farmers-demand-end-cull-17million-minks-coronavirus-outbreak.html Now Greece slaughters its mink: Cull starts of 2,500 animals...]



Share this article
Share
34 shares


Ms Zhang was believed to be the fourth Chinese independent reporter to have vanished from the public sight after posting reports from Wuhan, the former epicentre of the global health crisis.
Human rights campaigners are urging the Chinese government to release Ms Zhang. 
A New York-based human rights organisation told MailOnline that Ms Zhang was being published 'for doing exactly what the world desperately needed: reporting on the coronavirus from Wuhan'.
Home to some 11million people, the Chinese provincial capital caught international attention last December when the [/news/coronavirus/index.html coronavirus] first broke out there before spreading around the globe, killing at least 1,317,000 people so far. 
According to [ ], a Chinese website which publishes updates about activists, Ms Zhang's persecution documents were released by the People's Procuratorate of Pudong New District of Shanghai on September 15. 
One video published by Ms Zhang on YouTube purports to show the ER department of the Hubei Provincial People's Hospital overrun by patients who had to sleep in the corridor
In another clip, Ms Zhang alleged that one crematorium in the former epicentre was working in the middle of the night in mid-February, thought to be burning the bodies of COVID-19 victims
One of the official files accused Ms Zhang of 'maliciously hyping the epidemic of the novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan' through popular Chinese messaging app WeChat, as well as Twitter and YouTube.
The prosecutor claimed that Ms Zhang had spread 'a large amount of false information' through text and videos and accepted interviews with foreign media outlets.
The other document suggested the judge should sentence Ms Zhang to a maximum of five years in jail for 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble'.
'Picking quarrels and provoking trouble' is a vaguely defined charge often used by Chinese authorities to target activists and kynghidongduong.vn dissidents, which carries a prison sentence of up to five years. 
In another video series, Ms Zhang said she wanted to visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has been accused of being the origin of the coronavirus. The institute was surrounded by high-voltage electric fences and run by the military, Ms Zhang said while filming its exterior
China has repeatedly denied the allegations put against the Wuhan virus institute (pictured). Beijing insists that the WHO found no evidence that the novel coronavirus was man-made
Radio Free Asia reported last Thursday that Ms Zhang had been on a hunger strike since June to protest against her arrest.
Citing a lawyer who had spoken to Ms Zhang's mother, [ ] stated that one of Ms Zhang's lawyers had dropped out of the case - a likely result of the government's pressure. Ms Zhang had only one lawyer left, the article claimed. 
Ms Zhang lived in Shanghai before being arrested for her coronavirus reports.
Originally from the north-western province of Shaanxi, she had been critical of the Communist Party before the pandemic.
Last year, she was detained by the police, also on suspicion of 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble', after showing her support to pro-democracy Hong Kong protesters, [/news/article-8454509/Chinese-citizen-journalist-sending-coronavirus-reports-Wuhan-arrested.html according to a previous report]. 
It is said the independent journalist arrived in Wuhan around February 1 to report on the coronavirus outbreak.
The 37-year-old former lawyer has been formally indicted by public prosecutors of Shanghai for allegedly spreading false information, according to court papers circulating online 
Wuhan caught international attention last December when the coronavirus first broke out there before spreading around the globe, killing at least 1,317,000 people so far. Pictured, patients infected with COVID-19 are seen at a makeshift hospital in Wuhan on February
According to Ms Zhang's YouTube channel, she visited some of the most sensitive places in Wuhan at the height of the city's COVID-19 outbreak, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology, crematoriums and hospitals.
In [ ] uploaded on February 25, one man told Ms Zhang that he had just seen a crematorium van transporting corpses from Wuhan Wuchang Hospital. 'It's too scary,' the man is heard saying while standing outside the medical facility. 
In [ ] released the next day, she appeared to film the exterior of the tightly guarded Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was at the centre of startling theories that the virus escaped from there. The institute was surrounded by high-voltage electric fences and run by the military, Ms Zhang claimed. 
She also [ ]how one crematorium was allegedly working overnight in mid-February, thought to be burning the bodies of COVID-19 victims. 
In addition, the Hubei Provincial People's Hospital [ ] with patients on March 1 when official figures claimed that the number of daily infections had dropped sharply. 
 Ms Zhang's supporters have hailed her for revealing 'the truth' of the coronavirus outbreak
Ms Zhang's supporters have hailed her for revealing 'the truth' of the epidemic.
One person wrote on YouTube: 'You are a brave woman. [You] are risking your life to report news for our web users. Thank you.'
Another one said on the platform: 'Thank you, sister, you are a true hero.' 
One of her followers told [ ] in September: 'Zhang Zhan risked her life to go to infection area Wuhan to reveal the truth of Wuhan's epidemic. Such a brave citizen journalist was arrested.'  
Human Rights Watch, a US-based human rights group, condemned the Chinese authorities' treatment of Ms Zhang.
Wang Yaqiu, a China researcher at the organisation, told MailOnline: 'Zhang Zhan is being punished for doing exactly what the world desperately needed: reporting on the coronavirus from Wuhan. 
'The detention of Zhan only reveals how confident Beijing actually is about its "success" in containing Covid-19.
'Governments around the world should press Beijing to release Zhang and other wrongfully detained activists and citizen journalists immediately.' 
It is alleged that Ms Zhang was 'forced to disappear' by authorities in Wuhan on May 14 and formally arrested in Shanghai on June 19. 
'I'm very worried about her health and the detention conditions, and her mother is heartbroken,' Ms Zhang's 63-year-old father told [ ] in June.
'We don't have any connections or money to get her out - we're in an utterly powerless situation.'
Chen, 34, who went to Wuhan to report about the coronavirus outbreak independently, disappeared while reporting in Wuhan on February 6. His friend said he was being held under 'supervised surveillance at designated residence' in the eastern Chinese city Qingdao
Fang Bin (pictured), a Wuhan resident, went missing on February 9 after releasing a series of videos, including one showing piles of bodies being loaded into a bus (below)
Before Ms Zhang, three other citizen journalists had vanished for publishing reports about Wuhan's epidemic on international social media outlets.
Chen Qiushi, 34, was last heard from on February 6 when he was reporting about the virus in Wuhan. Nearly eight months after his disappearance, Mr Chen's close friend [/news/article-8772367/Chinese-citizen-journalist-disappeared-reporting-Wuhans-coronavirus-outbreak-found.html reportedly revealed last month] that he was being held under 'supervised surveillance at designated residence' in the eastern Chinese city Qingdao.
Fang Bin, a businessman, also disappeared in early February and trương gia giới is believed to have been taken into state custody.
Li Zehua, a 25-year-old former state TV journalist, disappeared in late February and re-appeared in late April. 
Li Zehua (pictured) vanished on February 26 before re-appearing at the end of April. Li was likely targeted by secret police after visiting the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a report said




data-track-module="am-external-links^external-links">
Read more:

[ Weiquan Net]
[ Radio Free Asia]
[ 武汉_武昌医院门口VID 20200225 091350 - YouTube]
[ 武汉_病毒研究所 "维护世界和平"VID 20200226 094134 - YouTube]
[ 武汉_火葬场深夜的轰鸣声 20200218 004553 - YouTube]
[ 武汉_疫情依旧严峻，医院过道挤满患者 VID 20200302 150726 - YouTube]
[ Radio Free Asia]
[ Chinese citizen journalist arrested after reporting on coronavirus from Wuhan | South China Morning Post]



DM.later('bundle', function()
DM.has('external-source-links', 'externalLinkTracker');
);