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Monday, December 28, 2020 7:25:26 PM
China jails citizen journalist Zhang Zhan to four years over coronavirus reporting in Wuhan
"New evidence of Uighur forced labour in China’s cotton industry - BBC News"
Mazoe Ford, with wires
Posted Yesterday at 9:41pm, updated 1hhour ago
Zhang Zhan reportedly went on a prolonged hunger strike while in detention and is said to be in poor health.
(AP: Kin Cheung)
Share
A Chinese court has handed a four-year jail term to a citizen journalist who reported from the central city of Wuhan at the peak of last year's coronavirus outbreak.
Key points:
* Zhang says she believes she's being persecuted for exercising her freedom of speech
* Her YouTube videos include interviews and footage of the Wuhan Institute of Virology
* State media have credited success in reining in the virus to President Xi
One of her lawyers, Ren Quanniu, said it was on grounds of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble."
Zhang Zhan, 37, the first such person known to have been tried, was among a handful of people whose firsthand accounts from crowded hospitals and empty streets painted a more dire picture of the pandemic epicentre than the official narrative.
"We will probably appeal," Mr Ren said, adding the trial at a court in Pudong, a district of China's business hub of Shanghai, ended with Zhang being sentenced to four years.
"Ms Zhang believes she is being persecuted for exercising her freedom of speech," he had said before the trial.
Police enforced tight security outside the court where the trial opened seven months after Zhang's
detention. (Reuters: Tyrone Siu)
A former lawyer, Zhang was arrested in May amid tough nationwide measures aimed at curbing the outbreak and heavy censorship to deflect criticism of the government's initial response.
Zhang reportedly went on a prolonged hunger strike while in detention, prompting authorities to forcibly feed her, and is said to be in poor health.
Her short video clips uploaded to YouTube consist of interviews with residents, commentary and footage of a crematorium, train stations, hospitals and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Her lawyers told the court that police strapped her hands and force-fed her with a tube.
By December, she was suffering headaches, giddiness, stomach ache, low blood pressure and a throat infection.
Solidarity to 'set her free'
Associate professor in Chinese studies from University of Technology Sydney Dr Feng Chongyi said he thought Zhang was "very brave" for broadcasting what was happening in Wuhan.
"Zhang Zhan and other citizen journalists [who reported from Wuhan] should be regarded as heroes and get rewards," Dr Feng told the ABC.
China wants Hong Kong to know no-one is safe
Jimmy Lai has been arrested before for various protest-related offences, but seeing him led away in handcuffs this time is different.
Read more > https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-10/why-chinas-arrest-of-hong-kongs-jimmy-lai-is-important/12541550
"But rather than doing that, Chinese authorities now sentence Zhang Zhan for four years.
"I am extremely upset and angry."
Dr Feng said Chinese authorities lied about the coronavirus when it first emerged "in order to save face" and Zhang's sentence reflects that.
"China punishes anyone who challenges the state narrative by telling the truth," he said.
"The international community should stand in solidarity with Zhang Zhan and force the Chinese Government to set her free."
In Shanghai, police enforced tight security outside the court where the trial opened seven months after Zhang's detention, although some supporters were undeterred.
It's 2:30am. My Twitter feed lights up. Wuhan is going into lockdown
As news of the coronavirus outbreak emerged, China correspondent Bill Birtles
and cameraman Brant Cumming scrambled to get to the city where it began.
Read more > https://www.abc.net.au/news/about/backstory/news-coverage/2020-02-02/china-correspondent-bill-birtles-on-covering-coronavirus/11919858
A man in a wheelchair, who came from the central province of Henan to demonstrate support for Zhang as a fellow Christian, wrote her name on a poster before police arrived to escort him away.
Requests to the court to release Zhang on bail before the trial and livestream the trial went ignored, her lawyer said.
Foreign journalists were denied entry to the court "due to the epidemic", court security officials said.
Other citizen journalists who had disappeared without explanation included Fang Bin, Chen Qiushi and Li Zehua.
Criticism of China's early handling of the crisis has been censored, and whistleblowers, such as doctors, have been warned.
State media has credited success in reining in the virus to the leadership of President Xi Jinping.
The virus has spread worldwide to infect more than 80 million people and kill over 1.76 million, paralysing air travel as nations threw up barriers against it that have disrupted industries and livelihoods.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-28/china-jails-citizen-journalist-four-years-over-covid19-reporting/13018106
See also:
Protests in 1969 Tokyo and today's Hong Kong
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=152697807
Paris police to remain in custody over beating of black music producer
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=159811003
Bahrain to establish diplomatic relations with Israel as Trump touts diplomatic breakthroughs in the Middle East
[...]
Coming at this time they can't avoid a slight sense of being little more than a present, from the murderer of Jamal
Kashoggi, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Netanyahu, to Trump's reelection campaign.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=158249908
"New evidence of Uighur forced labour in China’s cotton industry - BBC News"
Mazoe Ford, with wires
Posted Yesterday at 9:41pm, updated 1hhour ago
Zhang Zhan reportedly went on a prolonged hunger strike while in detention and is said to be in poor health.
(AP: Kin Cheung)
Share
A Chinese court has handed a four-year jail term to a citizen journalist who reported from the central city of Wuhan at the peak of last year's coronavirus outbreak.
Key points:
* Zhang says she believes she's being persecuted for exercising her freedom of speech
* Her YouTube videos include interviews and footage of the Wuhan Institute of Virology
* State media have credited success in reining in the virus to President Xi
One of her lawyers, Ren Quanniu, said it was on grounds of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble."
Zhang Zhan, 37, the first such person known to have been tried, was among a handful of people whose firsthand accounts from crowded hospitals and empty streets painted a more dire picture of the pandemic epicentre than the official narrative.
"We will probably appeal," Mr Ren said, adding the trial at a court in Pudong, a district of China's business hub of Shanghai, ended with Zhang being sentenced to four years.
"Ms Zhang believes she is being persecuted for exercising her freedom of speech," he had said before the trial.
Police enforced tight security outside the court where the trial opened seven months after Zhang's
detention. (Reuters: Tyrone Siu)
A former lawyer, Zhang was arrested in May amid tough nationwide measures aimed at curbing the outbreak and heavy censorship to deflect criticism of the government's initial response.
Zhang reportedly went on a prolonged hunger strike while in detention, prompting authorities to forcibly feed her, and is said to be in poor health.
Her short video clips uploaded to YouTube consist of interviews with residents, commentary and footage of a crematorium, train stations, hospitals and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Her lawyers told the court that police strapped her hands and force-fed her with a tube.
By December, she was suffering headaches, giddiness, stomach ache, low blood pressure and a throat infection.
Solidarity to 'set her free'
Associate professor in Chinese studies from University of Technology Sydney Dr Feng Chongyi said he thought Zhang was "very brave" for broadcasting what was happening in Wuhan.
"Zhang Zhan and other citizen journalists [who reported from Wuhan] should be regarded as heroes and get rewards," Dr Feng told the ABC.
China wants Hong Kong to know no-one is safe
Jimmy Lai has been arrested before for various protest-related offences, but seeing him led away in handcuffs this time is different.
Read more > https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-10/why-chinas-arrest-of-hong-kongs-jimmy-lai-is-important/12541550
"But rather than doing that, Chinese authorities now sentence Zhang Zhan for four years.
"I am extremely upset and angry."
Dr Feng said Chinese authorities lied about the coronavirus when it first emerged "in order to save face" and Zhang's sentence reflects that.
"China punishes anyone who challenges the state narrative by telling the truth," he said.
"The international community should stand in solidarity with Zhang Zhan and force the Chinese Government to set her free."
In Shanghai, police enforced tight security outside the court where the trial opened seven months after Zhang's detention, although some supporters were undeterred.
It's 2:30am. My Twitter feed lights up. Wuhan is going into lockdown
As news of the coronavirus outbreak emerged, China correspondent Bill Birtles
and cameraman Brant Cumming scrambled to get to the city where it began.
Read more > https://www.abc.net.au/news/about/backstory/news-coverage/2020-02-02/china-correspondent-bill-birtles-on-covering-coronavirus/11919858
A man in a wheelchair, who came from the central province of Henan to demonstrate support for Zhang as a fellow Christian, wrote her name on a poster before police arrived to escort him away.
Requests to the court to release Zhang on bail before the trial and livestream the trial went ignored, her lawyer said.
Foreign journalists were denied entry to the court "due to the epidemic", court security officials said.
Other citizen journalists who had disappeared without explanation included Fang Bin, Chen Qiushi and Li Zehua.
Criticism of China's early handling of the crisis has been censored, and whistleblowers, such as doctors, have been warned.
State media has credited success in reining in the virus to the leadership of President Xi Jinping.
The virus has spread worldwide to infect more than 80 million people and kill over 1.76 million, paralysing air travel as nations threw up barriers against it that have disrupted industries and livelihoods.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-28/china-jails-citizen-journalist-four-years-over-covid19-reporting/13018106
See also:
Protests in 1969 Tokyo and today's Hong Kong
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=152697807
Paris police to remain in custody over beating of black music producer
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=159811003
Bahrain to establish diplomatic relations with Israel as Trump touts diplomatic breakthroughs in the Middle East
[...]
Coming at this time they can't avoid a slight sense of being little more than a present, from the murderer of Jamal
Kashoggi, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Netanyahu, to Trump's reelection campaign.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=158249908
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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