Chinese journalist imprisoned for her Covid reporting due to be released after four years --- By Nectar Gan, CNN

han. EyePress News/Reuters Hong Kong CNN — A Chinese citizen journalist who has been behind bars for four years over her reporting on the initial Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan is due to be released Monday after serving her sentence, according to supporters and a court verdict. Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer, was one of the few independent Chinese journalists reporting in Wuhan after the metropolis of 11 million people went into a complete lockdown, offering a rare, unfiltered glimpse into the reality on the ground as Chinese authorities imposed tight censorship on media coverage. She was detained in May 2020 and sentenced months later to four years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – a charge commonly used by the Chinese government to target dissidents and human rights activists. Zhang is due to finish her sentence on Monday, according to the court verdict on her case obtained and published by human rights groups. In the lead-up to her expected release on Monday, supporters and rights groups have called on the Chinese government to free Zhang on schedule. Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which awarded Zhang its Press Freedom Award in 2021, called on “the international community to put pressure on the authorities to ensure her unconditional release on Monday” in a post on social platform X Friday. Prominent Chinese virologist Zhang Yongzhen pictured sleeping outside his lab at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center in this image shared on social media. This Chinese virologist shared crucial Covid-19 data. Then his research hit hurdles In early February in 2020, just days after Wuhan went into lockdown, Zhang traveled some 400 miles from Shanghai to the central Chinese city to report on the spread of the virus and subsequent attempts to contain it, just as authorities tightened censorship on state-run and private Chinese media. For more than three months, she documented snippets of life under lockdown in Wuhan and the harsh reality faced by its residents, from overflowing hospitals to empty shops, as the world braced for the spread of the virus. She posted her observations, photos and videos on Wechat, Twitter and YouTube – the latter two of which are blocked in China. “I can’t find anything to say because everything is covered up. This is the problem this country is facing now: any opposing opinions from us might be (dismissed as) ‘rumors.’” she said in a video two weeks after arriving in Wuhan, donning a face mask. “Even our own voices are out of our control. They imprison us in the name of pandemic prevention and restrict our freedom…If we cannot obtain the truth, if we cannot break their monopoly of the truth, the world will be meaningless to us.” Her postings came to an abrupt stop in mid-May, and she was later revealed to have been detained by police and brought back to Shanghai. Failing health The 40-year-old has been on multiple hunger strikes since being detained and her health conditions have sparked concerns from supporters and rights groups. In 2021, Zhang’s mother said her daughter was so frail that she could not hold her head up for lack of strength and was in desperate need of medical care. During a previous hunger strike, Amnesty International alleged Zhang was shackled and force fed, treatment the group said amounted to torture. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not previously respond to CNN on allegations of Zhang’s mistreatment in detention. In a lengthy statement issued in July 2020, the Foreign Ministry denied the Chinese government had cracked down on journalists who “exercised their right to freedom of speech on the Internet” during the pandemic. “In China, no one gets punished or penalized simply because of making remarks,” the statement said. “The Chinese government has all along conducted its Covid-19 response in an open and transparent manner, and has made widely recognized achievements.” Zhang was one of a number of independent reporters who were detained or disappeared during the outset of the pandemic, as Chinese authorities clamped down on coverage of the virus and propaganda outlets went into overdrive portraying Beijing’s response as effective and timely. China is the biggest jailer of journalists in the world, according to Reporters Without Borders, which ranks it at 172 out of 180 countries around the world in its annual Press Freedom Index. Authorities tightly control the press at home while blocking most foreign media outlets via the Great Firewall, its vast online censorship and surveillance apparatus.

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