During the corona lockdown, she reported critically in short online videos from Wuhan – that’s why a Chinese blogger is now on trial. The 37-year-old faces several years in prison.
By Steffen Wurzel, ARD-Studio Shanghai
At the beginning of the year, 37-year-old Zhang Zhan did what reporters, bloggers, journalists all over the world do: she researched and reported on things that go wrong. During the time of the tough corona lockdown in Wuhan, Zhang Zhan was on site in the central Chinese metropolis where the global Covid 19 pandemic had started.
For several weeks, Zhang Zhan produced short online videos in Wuhan: In these mini-reports, she talked about everyday problems in hospitals, corruption in government agencies and other grievances during the Covid lockdown in Wuhan.
In May, the law school graduate was arrested and detained by the Chinese police. The process is now beginning in Shanghai. The authorities accuse Zhang Zhan of causing unrest. She faces up to five years in prison.
Numerous citizen journalists arrested
Zhang Zhan is just one of several so-called citizen journalists who have been silenced by the Chinese authorities in recent months. Numerous similar cases have been reported in China since the spring. The human rights organization Human Rights Watch urged the Chinese leadership to release unlawfully detained journalists. The problems that exist in China will not go away simply by imprisoning journalists and activists, said Human Rights Watch China expert Wang Yaqiu.
In 2020 the situation for journalists in China deteriorated massively again. Virtually all media in China are under the control of the Communist Party. They are increasingly trying to spread their narrative of the perfectly executed corona management abroad – for example through embellished social media reports on Facebook and Twitter and through the work of state Chinese media agencies. In Europe, for example, these are trying to gain airtime and influence with uncritical reports about China’s Covid management.
Independent press work is made more difficult
For foreign journalists, too, the work in China has become much more difficult this year. Restrictions, persecution and harassment by security agencies have increased. China’s leadership in 2020 has shown more than a dozen foreign reporters. The communist leadership de facto no longer allows new foreign correspondents to enter the country. In Germany, too, several journalists have been waiting in vain for appropriate Chinese press visas for months.
The situation for Chinese journalists who work for foreign media companies in China is also becoming increasingly difficult. In early December, police in Beijing arrested an employee of the US news agency Bloomberg. The accusation: you endangered national security.
The organization Reporters Without Borders lists China at the bottom of its list of press freedom, at 177th place out of 180 countries worldwide. Only Eritrea, Turkmenistan and North Korea have less freedom of the press than in China.
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