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2h ago

Citizen Journalist Zhang Zhan Gets Additional Four-Year Prison Term in China

Rights groups say the closed trial used a vague public‑order offense to punish her reporting.

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 a Shanghai court sentenced Zhang Zhan to four more years on Friday, with Chinese officials not publicly confirming details of the proceedings.
  • She was convicted of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” the same charge used in her 2020 case, and authorities have not specified the acts behind the new conviction.
  • Foreign diplomats who sought to observe were turned away outside the Pudong court, and officials on site declined to confirm the hearing was underway.
  • RSF links the case to her reporting on human rights and to comments posted on overseas platforms, while her former lawyer argues she should not be criminalized for speech.
  • Zhang previously staged a hunger strike and was force-fed during her first detention; after a brief release in May 2024 she was detained again in August, as press-freedom groups condemn the new sentence and note China’s high number of jailed journalists.