The UN, human rights groups and media freedom watchdogs have condemned reports that Zhang Zhan, a Chinese citizen journalist, was sentenced to jail for the second time last week.
Zhang, 42, is thought to have stood trial in Shanghai on Friday on a charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a charge often used in China to target critics of the government. Western diplomats were reportedly turned away from observing the trial.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a media freedom NGO, said on Saturday that Zhang had been sentenced to four years in prison.
The sentencing came 16 months after she was released following a four-year sentence on the same charge. Zhang provoked the ire of the authorities after she travelled to Wuhan in February 2020 to report on the initial response to the Covid-19 outbreak. She was one of a number of independent journalists to be detained for broadcasting reports about the severe lockdown at ground zero of the pandemic.
Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for the UN human rights office, said reports of Zhang’s rearrest and sentencing were “deeply disturbing”.
He said: “This is the second time Zhang has been convicted and subjected to a custodial sentence for this offence. We call for her immediate and unconditional release.”
Aleksandra Bielakowska, an advocacy manager for RSF, said Zhang’s sentence was “utterly appalling, adding that the citizen journalist “should be celebrated globally as an ‘information hero’, not trapped in brutal prison conditions”.
Zhang is thought to have lived under close surveillance since being released in May last year after her first four-year term in prison. In August 2024, she was detained and later charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, with her indictment citing posts on social media that “seriously damaged the country’s image”. The authorities have not publicly confirmed what the specific offending social media posts were.
During Zhang’s first spell in prison she went on hunger strike and there were reports of her being force-fed.
Yalkun Uluyol, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: “Zhang’s politically motivated imprisonment is the price she pays for investigating the government’s wrongdoings as a citizen journalist and activist who dared to challenge the official narrative of the [Chinese] Communist party. Authorities should drop all charges and immediately and unconditionally release Zhang Zhan. Other governments should publicly raise her case with Beijing and press for her freedom.”
According to RSF, there are at least 124 media workers imprisoned in China. The country ranked 178th out of 180 territories in the 2025 RSF world press freedom index. Only North Korea and Eritrea rank lower.
The Chinese government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
