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Jailed Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan explains motivations in pre-arrest videos
- Supporters hope to raise global awareness of the 38-year-old, who has been on hunger strike in prison after her arrest while reporting on Covid-19 in Wuhan
- In the interviews, recorded before her 2020 arrest, Zhang says it is up to her generation to speak up, ‘otherwise the authorities will have free rein’
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Friends and supporters of jailed Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan have begun to release interviews with her recorded before her arrest, in the hope of drawing the world’s attention to her plight.
Sentenced to four years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – a catch-all charge that Chinese authorities have often used to stifle political dissidents – Zhang was in a critical condition after she started a hunger strike to protest against her arrest and sentence, according to a lawyer with knowledge of her situation.
Some of the video footage, recorded before Zhang’s arrest in May last year, was released this week by a group of supporters.
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Meanwhile, an online petition for Zhang’s release has collected more than 1,000 signatures. “The list of signatures continues to be updated, and some signatories have sent the list to Chinese authorities, but there has been no response,” said Jane Wang Jianhong, an activist with Humanitarian China, a US-based group founded by Chinese dissidents.
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Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan sentenced to four years in jail for Wuhan coronavirus reports
Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan sentenced to four years in jail for Wuhan coronavirus reports
Zhang Keke, Zhang Zhan’s lawyer, said he had not heard from the authorities about an application to meet the citizen journalist since he filed it more than a month ago.
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