V heavy security presence outside Shanghai Pudong court as Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan #张展 was just sentenced to 4 years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” her lawyers said. After the verdict was announced, Zhang’s mother sobbed loudly in court.
Diplomats from countries including the U.K. were barred from attending the hearing, and two foreign journalists were detained by police (one was released earlier). This man from Nippon TV was dragged away for simply trying to film police vans leaving the court
Dozens of foreign media journalists followed the lawyers to court earlier this morning. Police aggressively tried to push us further and further away from the court entrance, eventually sealing off most of the road opposite
Latest story update: frail and weak, Zhang Zhan appeared in court in a wheelchair and hardly spoke throughout the speedy, rushed hearing where prosecutors did not fully divulge details of the evidence that led to her harsh 4-year sentence. asiatimes.com/2020/12/zhang-…
This case is really a litmus test for China’s freedom of speech. Zhang was one of the very few brave enough to enter Wuhan during lockdown, with a desire to expose cover-ups by local officials and find out the truth behind the state media spin, to the best of her limited ability.
The fact that authorities gave Zhang such a harsh sentence for what is, indeed, fairly basic reporting not only sends a clear deterrent signal to people like her, but also sets a precedent for similar cases in future.
Zhang Zhan was driven to report from Wuhan by a deep empathy for the sufferings of ordinary citizens and her staunch Christian faith. Shortly before her detention, she advocated for grieving relatives of virus victims, which likely attracted govt scrutiny:
sg.news.yahoo.com/zhang-zhan-def…
sg.news.yahoo.com/zhang-zhan-def…
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