China, four-year imprisonment for citizen reporter who informed Wuhan coronavirus

-Earlier this year, a female citizen reporter who vividly communicated the situation of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) in Wuhan, China’s Hubei province, was sentenced to four years in prison for encouraging anxiety with false information. This is the first time that a court ruling has been issued on a related case, while many citizen reporters, such as Chen Chus and Fang Bin, are detained or disappeared.

According to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP) and others, the Shanghai People’s Court convicted a former lawyer and citizen reporter Jang Jan (37, photo), who was charged with violating public turmoil on the 28th. He said that he spread false information related to Corona 19 through social media such as’WeChat’ and YouTube of the Chinese version of Kakao Talk and maliciously conveyed the situation in Wuhan through interviews with foreign media.

The crime of public turmoil is a crime frequently applied by the Chinese government when controlling critical personnel, and can be up to five years in prison. Also, a person who repeats this behavior can be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison. His attorney said in an interview with Bloomberg that he will appeal soon, saying, “Jang Jan is in bad health.” AFP news agency complained that “China judges dissidents every year during the Christmas holiday to avoid Western surveillance,” and this trial was also an extension of that. Beijing = Kim Ki-yong correspondent [email protected]