626
submitted 6 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

Citizen journalist Zhang Zhan’s search for the truth during the early days of the pandemic was seen as a threat by the authorities

A Chinese citizen journalist who has been in prison for four years after reporting on the early days of the Covid-19 epidemic in Wuhan is due to be released on Monday.

Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer, travelled to Wuhan in February 2020 to document the Chinese government’s response to what became the start of a global pandemic. She shared her reports on X (then known as Twitter), YouTube and WeChat. She was one of the few independent Chinese reporters on the ground as Wuhan and the rest of China went into lockdown.

In one video, recorded in February 2020, Zhang said: “I can’t find anything to say except that the city is paralysed because everything is under cover. That’s what this country is facing now … They imprison us in the name of pandemic prevention and restrict our freedom. We must not talk to strangers, it’s dangerous. So without the truth, everything is meaningless. If we cannot get to the truth, if we cannot break the monopoly of the truth, the world means nothing to us.”

In another video, she showed a hospital that was overflowing with patients on trolleys in the hallway.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I just clicked through to a guardian link that talked about why she was initially convicted. It’s harder to pin down exactly what misinformation she was accused of spreading though since most western outlets are causally dismissive of the claims.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/16/citizen-journalist-facing-jail-in-china-for-wuhan-covid-reporting-zhang-zhan

That said, this guardian article references interviews she did with VoA, an American government outlet, and The Epoch Times, a far right wing outlet run by the Falun Gong cult. The Epoch Times I know in particular has promoted antivax or anti lockdown conspiracies in the US, as well as other stuff like with Qanon and the idea that Trump actually won in 2020. It wouldn’t surprise me to know she was promoting similar anti lockdown conspiracies but just in China.

[-] baseless_discourse@mander.xyz 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

since most western outlets are causally dismissive of the claims.

It is interesting you didn't give any western media the benefit of the doubt, while giving CCP plenty.

After a quick google search, it seems like there are several court documents for Zhang's case circling the internet:

There are two different versions, one judgement, one indictment (copy). Their contents seems to match, and they also match the reports of various media articles.

The indictment mentioned neither "the lie" nor "the truth", which, in my mind, is probably why most media never reported it.

The document only mentioned:

故根据现查明的事实可以证实 张展通过微信、“twitter”(推特)、“YouTube”(油管)等网络媒介发布的相关文章、视频及接 受采访内容均与武汉市实际防控疫情的客观实际情况不符。

according to current known fact, the related article, videos, and interview by Zhang Zhan on wechat, twitter, youtube, differ from the objective truth of situations in Wuhan.

I was not able to find any court document from official source from China/CCP. Since all these articles are either photos or transcribed from photo, I don't imagine the original documents are easy to find. It seems like the original document can be obtained from: https://wenshu.court.gov.cn/ (according to the title of the website, and Chinese government owned domain name), but they require personally identifiable information (like phone number, which is connected to ID in China) after I typed in 张展 (Zhang Zhan).

But since you clearly know more about China and CCP than I do, so you might want to give it a try.

[-] steal_your_face@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 months ago

To me it seems like she just talked negatively about the government and their policies on the global stage. Maybe could be considered misinformation because it appeals to westerners or something? To me it doesn’t seem like that though.

this post was submitted on 11 May 2024
626 points (98.3% liked)

World News

39153 readers
2024 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS