In the past year, the New Coronavirus has not only caused a huge loss of Life around the world, but has given authoritarian regimes a new excuse to crack down on media professionals and commentators. In that year, the journalist noted, the Chinese government arrested at least 10 journalists and commentators, with seven still in custody and the whereabouts of three others unknown. The organization urged Beijing to release them immediately. The journalists also called on the international community to put pressure on Beijing.
The call was made in a press release issued Wednesday (Feb. 10).
Early last year, an outbreak of an infectious disease, dubbed “Wuhan pneumonia” by Chinese media, suddenly broke out in Wuhan, China. Subsequent releases show that governments at all levels, from Wuhan to Hubei to Beijing, reacted in panic and were at a loss in the early stages of the Epidemic, and had to habitually mobilize all efforts to block news and control the media. It was during this phase that doctors such as Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, were tracked down and punished by the public security authorities for sending out dangerous signals about the virus.
The closure of Wuhan has given the Chinese authorities a new excuse to control the press and social media. Journalist groups say at least ten journalists and commentators have been arrested for venturing into areas with serious outbreaks, such as Wuhan, to report or to speak out against official concealment of the outbreak and suppression of speech. The press release said that seven of the ten, Zhang Zhan, Ren Zhiqiang, Guo Quan, Cai Wei, Chen Mei, Chen Qiushi and Fang Bin, have not yet been released.
Cedric Alviani, director of the Journalists’ East Asia Department, noted, “It is not a crime to provide the public with information about this unprecedented health crisis! These journalists do not deserve to be arrested at all.”
Alviani urged Beijing to release the men immediately and called on “the international community to put pressure on the Beijing authorities to release all imprisoned Chinese journalists and stop censoring information.”
Of the seven arrested, only two have had their cases heard and adjudicated by the courts, the press release said. One is Zhang Zhan, who is 37 years old. The court sentenced her to four years in prison on Dec. 28 last year for “provoking trouble. Zhang was arrested for entering Wuhan to broadcast live during the epidemic.
Another person was political commentator Ren Zhiqiang. The real estate tycoon was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Sept. 22 last year for economic crimes after a court slammed the official response to the epidemic. The other five are either awaiting trial or have not been heard from at all.
Journalists point out that the Chinese government has launched a global disinformation campaign to avoid world criticism. Currently, at least 119 people are imprisoned in China for defending press freedom. China is ranked 177th out of 180 countries in the 2020 Journalists’ World Press Freedom Rankings.
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