Particle.news
Download on the App Store
4 ARTICLES
·
22m ago

China Sentences Citizen Journalist Zhang Zhan to Four More Years, Rights Group Says

Authorities have not disclosed the factual basis for the new charge.

Workers in protective suits are seen at the Leishenshan Hospital, a makeshift hospital for treating patients with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Wuhan, Hubei province, China April 11, 2020. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
Medical workers in protective suits attend to COVID-19 patients at the intensive care unit (ICU) of a designated hospital during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, February 6, 2020. China Daily via REUTERS/File Photo ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. CHINA OUT/File Photo
People wearing protective suits are seen in Biandanshan cemetery in Wuhan, Hubei province, the epicenter of China's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, April 1, 2020. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
A medical worker in a protective suit conducts a nucleic acid testing for a child at a residential compound in Wuhan, the Chinese city hit hardest by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, Hubei province, China May 14, 2020. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

Overview

  • Reporters Without Borders says Zhang Zhan received a four-year term on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” the same offense used in her 2020 case after she reported from Wuhan.
  • Zhang was released in May 2024 and detained again in August, later held at Shanghai’s Pudong Detention Center, with her latest trial reportedly held in Shanghai on Friday.
  • Reuters reports it could not reach China’s Foreign Ministry for comment and could not determine whether Zhang has legal representation.
  • Press freedom groups RSF and the Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the sentence and called for her immediate release.
  • The reported sentencing came a week after China’s top lawmakers passed a bill to accelerate public-health emergency reporting by allowing direct reporting channels.