A Chinese court sentenced a citizen reporter to four years in prison for covering the situation in Wuhan, Hubei Province, where the novel coronavirus first spread.
Reuters news agency reported on the 28th that the People’s Court of the Pudong New District in Shanghai, China, sentenced Jang Jang, who was charged with “public turmoil,” to four years in prison, citing Jang’s lawyer.
Mr. Jang said that he would appeal that day, “Mr. Jang is being oppressed for exercising free speech.”
While strict controls were in place outside the court that day, some protesters in support of Jang gathered, and foreign reporters were said to have been denied access to the court because of “infectious disease”.
Jang entered Wuhan, where the Chinese authorities issued a containment order in February, when the coronavirus spread in earnest, and posted videos of hospitals and cremation facilities on social media, criticizing the Chinese authorities’ blockade measures.
It is said that Zhang was the first journalist indicted while covering the corona situation in Wuhan that a court ruling came out.
The’offense of public turmoil’ is a crime applied to people who destroy social order by making a fuss in a public place and can face up to five years in prison.
VOA news
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