LI NETWORK
Zhang Zhan, a Chinese citizen journalist, who was held for her live stream since May for reporting Wuhan’s COVID-19 outbreak was sentenced to four years imprisonment on Monday.
Also, a former lawyer, she was accused of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” due to her reporting of the chaotic outbreak.
One of her defence lawyers said, “Zhang Zhan looked devastated when the sentence was announced.”
Her reports and essays brought widespread attention on social media in February.
Diplomats and journalists gathered around Shanghai Pudong New District People’s Court, but police had pushed away to make way for the defendant and her lawyers.
The citizen journalist wrote in an essay that the government “didn’t give people enough information, then simply locked down the city.”