Zhang Zhan was one of the independent journalists who traveled to the city of Wuhan, in central China, after the government placed the city under lockdown in February 2020 at the start of the covid-19 pandemic.
The journalist went around the city to document public life as fears about the new coronavirus grew.
In May of that year, Zhan was reported missing, but it was later revealed that she had been detained by police in Shanghai, eastern China.
Zhang Zhan was convicted of "causing disturbances" and "seeking trouble" because of the reports she had published. These kinds of vague accusations are common against journalists in China.
The journalist refused to admit the charges, considering that the information she published on Chinese platforms such as WeChat or on the social networks Twitter and YouTube should not have been censored.
According to Amnesty International (AI), her work in Wuhan focused on reporting on the arrests of other independent reporters and the harassment of relatives of victims of the new coronavirus.
HUIZHONG WUReleased, four years later
This Wednesday, after serving her full sentence, Zhang Zhan released a video in which she said she was transported by the police to the home of her brother, Zhang Ju, on May 13, the day her sentence ended.
"I want to thank you all for your help and concern," said the journalist, standing in what appears to be the corridor of a building.
However, on the day of her release, the journalist's former lawyers were unable to contact her or her family.
The video was published by Jane Wang, a foreign activist who launched the Free Zhang Zhan campaign in the UK and is in contact with one of Zhang's former lawyers.
Wang added in a statement that Zhang continues to have limited freedom, subject to police surveillance.
The US State Department also issued a statement expressing concern about Zhang's situation in the days following his scheduled release.
Ren Quanniu, the lawyer who represented Zhang before her license was withdrawn in February 2021, said that he had confirmed the veracity of the video with Zhang's family.
During her detention in Shanghai Women's Prison in eastern China, Zhang went on a hunger strike and was hospitalized in 2021.
Her family faced police pressure during her incarceration and her parents refused to speak to journalists.
Not a unique case
Like Zhang Zhan, other independent journalists have served prison sentences for documenting the early days of the pandemic, including Fang Bin, who published videos of hospitals overcrowded with corpses during the outbreak.
Fang was sentenced to three years in prison and released in April 2023.
Chen Qiushi, another journalist, disappeared in February 2020 while filming in Wuhan. Chen reappeared in September 2021, in a live broadcast by a friend on the YouTube portal, saying that he was suffering from depression, giving no further details about his disappearance.
Coronavirus continues to be a sensitive issue in China. In the first week of May, the Chinese scientist who first published the sequence of the virus that causes Covid-19 protested against an eviction order from his laboratory, after years of demotions and obstacles.
