Chinese Journalist Who Reported On COVID-19 Outbreak Faces Imprisonment Of Up To Five Years

Shanghai: A citizen journalist from China, who has been detained since May for reporting the COVID-19 outbreak from Wuhan, is facing a sentence of up to five years in jail after she was formally indicted on charges of spreading false information, ANI reported.

Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer, is being held in a detention facility in Shanghai after being arrested for over six months as she reported on the virus outbreak, ANI reported quoting The Guardian.

Additionally, Zhang was accused of ‘picking quarrels and stirring up trouble’. According to the prosecution document, the indictment sheet on Monday claimed that Zhang had sent formal information through text, video and other media through the Internet media such as WeChat, Twitter and Youtube, the report said.

“She also accepted interviews from overseas media Free Radio Asia and Epoch Times and maliciously speculated on Wuhan’s COVID-19 epidemic,” it further said.

Zhang is among the several journalists who have been arrested this year after travelling to Wuhan to report on the virus outbreak and response, reported The Guardian.