A Chinese journalist has been sentenced for posts about the COVID-19 pandemic.

Human rights journalist Zhang Zhan, who was previously sentenced to four years in prison for covering the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, CHINA, has been sentenced to a similar term, writesREUTERS .

42-year-old Zhang Zhan was convicted of "inciting quarrels and provoking unrest"—on the same grounds as in December 2020. This time, the charges were her publications about human rights violations and comments on foreign websites.

Chinese authorities have not publicly indicated what actions Zhang is accused of.

Zhang was arrested in 2020 after publishing videos and reports from Wuhan, documenting the situation in hospitals and on the streets at the beginning of the pandemic. While in custody, she went on hunger strike and was force-fed. She was released in May 2024 , but was arrested again three months later.

Shortly before Zhang's re-sentencing, Chinese authorities passed a bill to expedite public HEALTH emergency response, allowing individuals to report emergencies without going through the usual government hierarchical structure. The law will take effect on November 1.

Following the onset of the CORONAVIRUS pandemic, the WHO launched an investigation into the origins of the infection. In February 2021, the organization announced China's refusal to provide the necessary baseline data on 174 cases of the disease identified in Wuhan in December 2019.

In July of that year, Beijing refused to help the WHO investigate the laboratory leak theory and accused the organization of political posturing. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus did not rule out the possibility that the virus could have been artificially created in a Chinese laboratory. The organization suspended further research due to China's opposition.

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