Jailing of journalist shows China still fears the covid truth
More than 120 journalists are imprisoned by the Communist regime, which tolerates no truth telling.
Nearly six years after the coronavirus first appeared in Wuhan, sparking a pandemic, Chinese authorities are still acting as though they have something to hide — and fear. Last Friday, a brave journalist who helped expose the impact of the coronavirus’s early days in Wuhan was once again sentenced to four years in prison, apparently for continuing to rattle authorities by speaking truth and refusing to be silenced.
Zhang Zhan was charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” That’s the catchall phrase from Communist China’s lexicon for anyone who makes the regime uncomfortable. Zhang was hit with the same charge in December 2020 for her live-streamed reporting from Wuhan earlier that year. She revealed overcrowded and understaffed hospitals, empty streets and the debilitating lockdown of the entire city.
She spent four years in prison, until her release in May 2024. But she was detained again three months later and has had no contact with the outside world since then. Press freedom groups and the U.N. Human Rights Office said Zhang was rearrested and charged likely because of her social media posts about the regime’s human rights abuses.
In a country where the media is strictly controlled, citizen-journalists such as Zhang typically provide the only real source of uncensored information. From those early days of the pandemic, she posted 122 YouTube videos of life amid the world’s first and most severe lockdown. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) honored Zhang with its 2021 Press Freedom Award for courage.
Though she was lauded overseas as a truth teller, back in China, the country’s paranoid rulers considered her a threat. In China, journalists who stray from the official line and dare to tell the truth end up imprisoned and silenced. China now has 124 media workers in prison and ranks 178th out of 180 countries on RSF’s press freedom index. That’s above only North Korea and Eritrea in terms of press freedom and the treatment of journalists.
Zhang’s imprisonment and China’s overall treatment of journalists raise a question still lingering about Wuhan. What, exactly, is China still trying to hide? It’s obvious what it fears most: the truth.