A Chinese journalist who chronicled the earliest days of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan has been handed an additional four-year prison sentence, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Zhang Zhan, 42, had already been serving time on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” the same accusation that saw her jailed in December 2020 for sharing on-the-ground reports of the virus’s spread.
RSF confirmed on Saturday that a Shanghai court delivered the latest ruling on Friday.
Efforts to reach China’s Foreign Ministry for comment were unsuccessful, and it remains unclear whether Zhang currently has 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 arrested in 2020 after posting videos and accounts from hospitals and deserted streets in Wuhan, painting a far bleaker reality than official government statements suggested.
Her then-lawyer, Ren Quanniu, said she felt she was “being persecuted for exercising her freedom of speech.”
A month into her detention, Zhang staged a hunger strike, leading authorities to restrain her and feed her through a tube, according to her legal team at the time.
She was freed in May 2024 but taken back into custody just three months later. RSF said she was formally arrested in Shanghai and placed in Pudong Detention Center before facing the new trial.
The group added that the latest prosecution followed her reporting on human rights abuses.
Ren, her former lawyer, wrote on X that the charges were linked to her online comments on foreign websites and argued she “should not be deemed guilty.” Chinese officials have never specified the precise acts behind the accusations.
“This is the second time Zhang Zhan has faced trial on baseless charges that amount to nothing more than a blatant act of persecution for her journalism work,” said Beh Lih Yi, Asia-Pacific director for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. “Chinese authorities must put an end to the arbitrary detention of Zhang, drop all charges, and free her immediately.”
China continues to lead the world in imprisoning journalists, with at least 124 currently detained, RSF reported.
The country ranks 178th out of 180 in the 2025 RSF World Press Freedom Index.
The new sentence came just a week after China’s legislature passed a bill designed to speed up responses to public health emergencies, allowing individuals to report incidents directly instead of through government hierarchies.
