A Chinese citizen-journalist was slammed with a four-year jail
sentence on Monday for her reportage from Wuhan regarding the emergence of the novel
coronavirus, PTI reported her lawyer as saying.

Zhang Zan, herself a former lawyer, was sentenced by a court
in Shanghai for allegedly ‘picking and quarrels and provoking trouble’ during
her time in Wuhan in the primary stages of the viral outbreak.

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China has so far punished eight whistleblowers in an
apparent attempt to rid the government of any criticism or checking measures in
its coronavirus response system, with Beijing, contrarily, congratulating
itself for an ‘extraordinary’ performance in controlling the outbreak and largely
pushing its economy back into activity, even as the rest of the world staggers
through lockdowns and largely stunted financial growth a year after the first case
surfaced in Wuhan.

“We had no way of understanding what exactly Zhang Zhan
was accused of doing,” AFP quoted Zhang Keke, one of the former’s lawyers,
as saying. He further noted that the court had alleged Zhan of spreading ‘false
remarks’ online, but also added that the prosecution refused to divulge its
entire evidence in court.

Keke reportedly described the hearing as a “speedy, rushed
one”.

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The controlling of the information flow has been imperative
for the country where censorship is king, as it has significantly allowed the
CCP and Chinese President Xi Jinping to reframe the entire coronavirus-afflicted
narrative into their favour, resulting in heavy crackdowns on anyone aiming to
find holes in the said narrative.

Reporters were barred from entering the court during the
hearing, as concerns in China are currently on the rise around the wellbeing of
Zhang (37), who has been fed through a nasal tube since June, when she started
a hunger strike.