<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/11/zhang-zhan-chinese-citizen-journalist-to-be-freed-covid-wuhan-pandemic>
"A Chinese citizen journalist who has been in prison for four years after
reporting on the early days of the Covid-19 epidemic in Wuhan is due to be
released on Monday.
Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer, travelled to Wuhan in February 2020 to document
the Chinese government’s response to what became the start of a global
pandemic. She shared her reports on X (then known as Twitter), YouTube and
WeChat. She was one of the few independent Chinese reporters on the ground as
Wuhan and the rest of China went into lockdown.
In one video, recorded in February 2020, Zhang said: “I can’t find anything to
say except that the city is paralysed because everything is under cover. That’s
what this country is facing now … They imprison us in the name of pandemic
prevention and restrict our freedom. We must not talk to strangers, it’s
dangerous. So without the truth, everything is meaningless. If we cannot get to
the truth, if we cannot break the monopoly of the truth, the world means
nothing to us.”
In another video, she showed a hospital that was overflowing with patients on
trolleys in the hallway.
Zhang was arrested in May 2020 and later sentenced to four years in prison for
“picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a charge often used against
activists. She has been held in Shanghai women’s prison ever since.
During her time in prison, Zhang, who turned 40 in September, has engaged in
periodic hunger strikes to protest against her conviction and treatment. One of
her former lawyers, who has since been struck off, said that when he saw her in
the winter of 2020 she was very thin, had a tube up her nose for force feeding,
and had her hands tied, so that she could not pull out the tube. “People asked
me to convince Zhang Zhan to eat something, but she insisted,” the lawyer said.
Her weight reportedly dropped from 11st 8lb (74.8kg) to less than 6st 4lb
(40.8kg) at one point, although she is thought to have been in better health in
recent months."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
