Reporters Without Borders Urges China to Free Ailing COVID-19 Journalist Zhang Zhan

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th December, 2021) Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged Beijing on Monday to release the first Chinese COVID-19 journalist Zhang Zhan, who has been on a partial strike protesting her four-year sentence - "for provoking trouble" - from a year ago.

"Zhang Zhan courageously risked her life reporting in Wuhan at a time when very little information was available on the mode of transmission and severity of COVID-19, and she should have been celebrated as a hero instead of being arrested," RSF East Asia Bureau head Cédric Alviani said in a statement published on the organization's website.

RSF also noted that Zhang, who covered the first weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, is risking death due a partial hunger strike in protest of her arrest. The organization added that due to her health, Chinese authorities must grant medical parole to Zhang.

Zhang was sentenced on December 28, 2020 to four years in prison for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." In June 2020, she began a hunger strike in protest of her arrest. On July 31, 2021, she was admitted to hospital due to severe malnutrition. However, she was returned to prison and remains on a partial hunger strike despite the grave risk to her health, which was confirmed by family members who visited her in November.

On December 9, the US-based international NGO the Committee to Protect Journalists released a report featuring a number of journalists killed and imprisoned worldwide, with China ranking first after jailing 50 journalists in 2021 amid preparations to host the Winter Olympics in February 2022.