September 17, 2021 -Journalist Zhan Zhang is currently being held at the Shanghai City Women’s Prison. She was already hospitalized once while in custody in July this year, however, her health appears to be failing still. According to a radio interview given by a family friend Zhang suffers from stomach ulcers and reflux esophagitis. Her loved ones fear that her hunger strike will result in organ failure due to malnutrition. Despite her mother’s appeal, the authorities refused to grant Zhang bail for medical reasons. Zhang currently weighs less than 90 pounds and human rights groups working on the case have warned that Zhang might pass away in state custody if not provided the medical attention necessary.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism demands that Zhan Zhang be immediately granted bail on medical grounds. The arrest of the journalist was condemnable since the very beginning but to not have her life be at risk due to state mishandling is abominable.

In a joint letter published on 17th September 2021, The Coalition For Women In Journalism joined Reporters Without Borders (RSF) with a coalition of 43 other human rights NGOs urged Chinese President Xi Jinping to exonerate and release Zhang Zhan, 38, a journalist who covered the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in the city of Wuhan (Central China). 

On 28th December 2020, after a mere three-hour trial, the Shanghai Pudong New Area Court sentenced her to four years in prison for ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’. To demonstrate her innocence, Zhang has been on hunger strike since May 2020, for which she was force-fed through a nasal tube, and is at risk of dying if not immediately released.

“Zhang Zhan did not commit any crime but instead courageously risked her life to inform the public on the health crisis. She should never have been arrested, let alone subjected to a harsh prison sentence”, says the head of RSF East Asia bureau, Cédric Alviani, who urges President Xi Jinping to “ensure that Zhang Zhan is released before it’s too late.”

According to her family, Zhang has lost significant weight and was hospitalised for 11 days in early August but has since been returned to prison despite her deteriorating health. Zhang Zhan was also reportedly the victim of ill treatment and her family has been systematically denied visits.

Along with Zhang Zhan, at least 10 other press freedom defenders detained in China may soon suffer a deadly fate, including investigative reporter and RSF World Press Freedom Awardee Huang Qi, Swedish publisher Gui Minhai and Uighur journalist Ilham Tohti, recipient of the Václav Havel Prize and Sakharov Prize. 

Kunchok Jinpa, a leading source of information about Tibet for journalists, died in February 2021 as a result of mistreatment in detention. Nobel Peace Prize and RSF Press Freedom Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo and dissident blogger Yang Tongyan both died in 2017 from cancer that was left untreated in detention. 

China, ranked 177th out of 180 in the 2021 RSF World Press Freedom Index, is the world's largest captor of journalists with at least 122 detained.

Signatories:

Reporters Without Borders (RSF)

Article 19

Amnesty International

Association of Taiwan Journalists

Association of the New School for Democracy

Centre for Human Rights and Development, Mongolia

China Aid Association

China Change

China Political Prisoner Concern 

Chinese Democracy Education Foundation

Chinese Human Rights Defenders  (CHRD)

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

Consumer Foundation, Mongolia

CSW, UK

FIDH, within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

Freedom House 

Front Line Defenders

Globe International Center, Mongolia

Government Citizen Partnership, Mongolia, 

Humanitarian China

Human Rights in China (HRIC)

Human Rights Now

Human Rights Foundation

IFEX

Index on Censorship

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)

International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)

Judicial Reform Foundation

LGBT Centre, Mongolia

Mongolian Men’s Union

Mongolian Women's Employment Support Federation

PEN International

Safeguard Defenders

Steps Without Borders, Mongolia

Taiwan Forever Association

Taiwan Media Watch Foundation

Taiwan Media Workers Union

Tuva Women's AVAM Union, Mongolia

The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ)

The Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club

The Rights Practice

Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP)

Women for Change NGO, Mongolia

Women’s Right in China

World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders