Journalist Jailed For Covid Coverage In China Now "Close To Death"
NDTV
A citizen journalist who attempted to report on China's initial response to Covid in Wuhan was detained In May 2020 and sentenced to four years' in jail for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble".
A citizen journalist jailed for her coverage of China's initial response to Covid in Wuhan is close to death after going on hunger strike, her family said, prompting renewed calls from rights groups for her immediate release.
Zhang Zhan, 38, a former lawyer, travelled to Wuhan in February 2020 to report on the chaos at the pandemic's epicentre, questioning authorities' handling of the outbreak in her smartphone videos.
She was detained in May 2020 and sentenced in December to four years in jail for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" -- a charge routinely used to suppress dissent.
She is now severely underweight and "may not live for much longer", her brother Zhang Ju wrote last week on a Twitter account verified by people close to the matter.
