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When Wuhan – then the centre of the Covid-19 outbreak in China – went into lockdown, Zhang Zhan was one of the few citizen journalists to report on the unfolding crisis.
Determined to get the truth out, the former lawyer travelled to the beleaguered city in February 2020. She took to social media, reporting how government officials had detained independent reporters and harassed families of Covid-19 patients. Citizen journalists were the only source of uncensored, first-hand information about the epidemic.
Zhan went missing in Wuhan in May 2020. Authorities later confirmed that she had been held by police in Shanghai, 640km away. In June 2020, she began a hunger strike to protest her detention. In December, her body was so weak she had to attend her court hearing in a wheelchair. The judge sentenced her to four years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.
Zhan was transferred to Shanghai Women’s Prison in March 2021. The authorities continue to refuse her family visits. “We should seek the truth and seek it at all costs,” Zhan has said. “Truth has always been the most expensive thing in the world. It is our life.”
Amnesty International is campaigning for China to free Zhan immediately.
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