Zhang Zhan
Citizen journalist, lawyer
Early life and education
Zhang was born in Xianyang, Shaanxi, and graduated in finance at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics.
Trial, 28 December 2020
Zhang was charged with picking quarrels and provoking trouble, a charge the Chinese government often uses to imprison opponents, and was sentenced to four years in prison.[31] The crime is defined as undermining public order by creating a disturbance in a public place.[32] The indictment sheet accused Zhang of talking to foreign media such as Radio Free Asia and The Epoch Times, and spreading false information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan.[31]
Zhang was accused of fabricating two items in her reporting from Wuhan; that residents were forced to pay a fee to get COVID-19 tests, and that residents confined to their homes had been sent rotten vegetables by neighbourhood committees. Zhang maintains these are true.[33]
The trial before a Shanghai court took place on 28 December 2020. Supporters, foreign journalists, and a British diplomat were blocked from entering the courtroom. The trial lasted less than three hours in total.[21][34][35][36] Foreign media saw the timing of the trial between Christmas and New Year as aiming to minimise attention in Western countries, a tactic which China had used previously in the trial of other dissidents.[37] Zhang was sentenced to four years imprisonment, making her the first citizen journalist to be sentenced for reporting the pandemic in China.[17][38][39] She was represented by several lawyers, including Ren Quanniu and Zhang Keke.[21] She declined to appeal her conviction, telling her lawyers that she saw the legal process used to imprison her as legally invalid.[5][40]
Imprisonment, December 2020 to present
Zhang was hospitalized in Shanghai on 31 July 2021, after staging a long-running hunger strike, according to a message from her mother on Chinese social media. Her mother also wrote that Zhang was weighing less than 40 kilograms, half her body weight from before her detention.[41] On 2 August 2021, after notification from and on request of authorities,[42] her parents and brother went to Shanghai to visit Zhang in prison but were only given permission to speak with her over the phone.[19] Zhang returned to prison on 11 August 2021.[5] Subsequently, her health appeared to deteriorate further according to her mother, who told Radio Free Asia that her daughter, with whom she had spoken in a video call on 28 October, could not walk unassisted and was drooping her head.[6] In late 2021, Zhang's family made personal visits to her. Her mother said that the condition of her daughter in late November was still the same as before, in spite of her having been admitted again to hospital at the end of October. The family said that the hospital had withheld the clinical report from them.[43]
In February 2022, Zhang's mother revealed that her daughter's health had improved and Zhang had halted her hunger strike. Zhang was able to walk on her own and her stomachache has ended due to her food intake.[44]
Reactions
United States
On 29 December 2020, Mike Pompeo, the United States Secretary of State released a statement that "The United States strongly condemns the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) sham prosecution and conviction of citizen journalist Zhang Zhan on December 28".[45][46] On 8 November 2021, Department of State spokesman Ned Price said that the United States was "deeply concerned about the deteriorating health" of Zhang, that it had "serious concerns about the arbitrary nature of her detention and her mistreatment during it", and called for her "immediate and unconditional release".[8]
European Union
In December 2020, the European Union (EU) called for her to be released immediately.[47] They also called for the release of human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, and several others detained and convicted human rights defenders and reporters in China. An EU foreign policy spokesman, Peter Stano, stated, "according to credible sources, Ms Zhang has been subject to torture and ill-treatment during her detention and her health condition has seriously deteriorated".[48][49] Nabila Massrali, spokeswoman for the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, called on 24 November for the unconditional release of Zhang and noted at the same time that previous calls by the European Union had not received a response.[50]
United Kingdom
In December 2020, the Embassy of the United Kingdom, Beijing, said her case "raises serious concerns about media freedom in China" and that she was one of at least 47 journalists currently (December 2020) in detention in China for their coronavirus reporting; the statement called on the Chinese government for their release.[51]
United Nations
in a tweet on 28 December 2020, the United Nations human rights office said, that it had "raised her case with the authorities throughout 2020", and that it would continue to call for her release.[52] On 19 November 2021, the human rights office urged for "Zhang's immediate and unconditional release, at the very least, on humanitarian grounds", and for her to be able to access "urgent life-saving" medical care.[9][53]
Non-governmental organizations
on 17 September 2021, a coalition of 45 non-governmental organizations, including Reporters Without Borders (RSF), called Chinese leader Xi Jinping to be exonerated and for Zhang s "immediate" release due to her health condition. RSF's East Asia bureau head Cédric Alviani said that Zhang "should never have been arrested, let alone subjected to a harsh prison sentence".[54]
In November 2021, RSF announced Zhang as a nominee of the organization's press freedom award for courage, in recognition of her journalistic work.[55] She was announced as the recipient a week later.[56]
Ahead of the EU-China summit in March 2022, Zhang was among the shortlist of human rights defenders and activists called for the release by a joint NGO letter to the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council. Among the NGOs in support were Human Rights Watch, Front Line Defenders and Christian Solidarity Worldwide.[57]
China
As of November 2020, it was nearly impossible to find writings or videos by Zhang on the Chinese internet, although some comments by netizens on her had slipped past internet censorship.[58]
An indictment dated 15 September 2020, which became known on 13 November 2020, said that through accepting interviews from foreign media outlets such as Radio Free Asia and the Epoch Times, Zhang had "maliciously hype[d] up the situation in Wuhan, reaching a wide audience and causing a negative impact."[58]
On 20 November 2021, the diplomatic mission of China at the United Nations in Geneva responded with strong criticism to the statement by the UN human rights office from a day earlier. Mission spokesman Zhang Yuyin said that the office had turned "a blind eye to information provided by China through normal channels," had "irresponsible" and "erroneous" comments, and that the success of China in combating the COVID-19 pandemic was "not something that anyone can distort or write off".[59]
The Chinese Embassy in Britain said in a statement on the case of Zhang that the right of prison inmates to receive medical attention was "fully guaranteed", and that "anyone who breaches the law shall be sanctioned accordingly."[20]