A Chinese journalist who served four years in prison for documenting the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan has been handed another four-year sentence, Reporters Without Borders said Friday.
Zhang Zhan, 42, was sentenced on a charge of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" in China, the same charge that led to her December 2020 imprisonment after she posted first-hand accounts from the central city of Wuhan on the early spread of coronavirus, the international press freedom group, known by its French initials RSF, said Saturday.
China's Foreign Ministry could not be immediately reached Sunday for comment. Reuters could not determine whether the citizen-journalist had legal representation.
"She should be celebrated globally as an 'information hero,' not trapped in brutal prison conditions," RSF Asia-Pacific advocacy manager Aleksandra Bielakowska said in a statement.
"Her ordeal and persecution must end. It is more urgent than ever for the international diplomatic community to pressure Beijing for her immediate release."
Zhang was initially arrested after months of posting accounts, including videos, from crowded hospitals and empty streets that painted a more dire early picture of the disease than the official narrative.
Her lawyer at the time, Ren Quanniu, said Zhang believed she was "being persecuted for exercising her freedom of speech."
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