China: five years after breaking key stories on COVID-19, journalist Zhang Zhan is dying in detention
Exactly five years ago, Zhang Zhan travelled to the city of Wuhan to cover the very beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the immediate release of this “information hero” who alerted the world to the pandemic and who is at risk of death due to her prolonged hunger strike protesting her mistreatment.
In the beginning of February 2020, Chinese journalist Zhang Zhan heard rumours that an unidentified disease was killing citizens in the city of Wuhan. Despite the risk of contagion, she travelled 850 km to cover the situation on the ground, working in the epicentre of what turned out to be one of the deadliest pandemics in modern history. For this, she was sentenced to four years in prison as the Chinese regime tried to cover up news about the outbreak and their responsibility for the spread of the disease.
Five years later — after completing her first, unjust prison sentence — Zhang Zhan is in detention once again, arrested just a few weeks after sharing information about the harassment of human rights activists on social media. She has now been behind bars since August 2024 and recently started a hunger strike in protest of her mistreatment by the regime. According to RSF information, Zhang Zhan — who was already very weak prior herpast six months of detention — is being force-fed by prison authorities.
“Zhang Zhan should be praised as an information hero after she alerted the global community about the deadly COVID-19. Instead, she is once again being repressed by the Chinese regime and fighting for her survival in prison. Now, after four years of being wrongly imprisoned, she may not make it through her second incarceration. It is more urgent than ever for the international diplomatic community to pressure Beijing for her immediate release.
The journalist who broke COVID-19 story
In early 2020, Zhang Zhan travelled to Wuhan to cover the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, after she saw an online post where the author said he felt like he had been “left to die” by the authorities. It pushed Zhang Zhan to record over 100 videos documenting overflowing hospitals, empty shops, and families of victims being harassed by the authorities. In her reports, which she shared on her YouTube, WeChat and Twitter accounts, she revealed that crematoria in the city were operating day and night at a time when state media claimed that the pandemic was under control as authorities tried to bury the story to avoid any responsibility for the disaster.
In May of the same year, Zhang Zhan went missing and was later confirmed as detained by the authorities. In the indictment, the prosecutor accused her of “posting large quantities of false information”. In 2021, she was sentenced to four years in prison by a Shanghai court on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.
Laureate of the RSF Press Freedom Award
Throughout her imprisonment, RSF campaigned for her release and warned about the mistreatment she was subjected to in prison. During her early months of detention, Zhang Zhan — laureate of the 2021 RSF Press Freedom Award — nearly died after going on a total hunger strike to protest her mistreatment. Prison officials forcibly fed her through a nasal tube and sometimes left her handcuffed for days.
China, the world’s biggest prison for journalists and press freedom defenders with at least 124 media workers currently behind bars, is ranked 172nd out of 180 countries in the RSF 2024 World Press Freedom Index.
