EU calls for release of Chinese journalist who reported on initial Covid outbreak

Brussels, Sep 5 (EFE).- The European Union on Thursday called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of Chinese journalist Zhang Zhan, in response to complaints from various organizations about her new arrest, after the courts released her in May after spending four years in prison for reporting on the initial outbreak of Covid in the city of Wuhan.

“The European Union is concerned about reports that Chinese journalist Zhang Zhan has been arrested again and detained in the Shanghai Pudong detention centre,” European External Action Service spokeswoman Nabila Massrali said in a message on social media X.

In this regard, he called for her “immediate and unconditional release” and expressed the EU’s concern about the journalist’s “well-being and health.”

The Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) organization reported last Friday that the reporter was in police custody, while Reporters Without Borders (RSF) expressed its “alarm” that her whereabouts are unknown and noted that since her release in May “she has been under close police surveillance.”

Zhang was arrested in May 2020 and served a four-year prison sentence for reporting on the initial outbreak of Covid-19 in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

He has always refused to accept the charges against him, arguing that his information – published through platforms such as WeChat and other platforms banned in the country such as Twitter or YouTube – should not be censored.

According to Amnesty International (AI), Zhang’s work in Wuhan focused on reporting on the harassment of other reporters and relatives of coronavirus victims during the first global outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

AI then called for her release and denounced the trial as “a shameful attack on human rights” given that the reporter “was trying to report on what was happening in Wuhan amid strong government opacity regarding the pandemic.”