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A
coalition of 62 press freedom and human rights organisations including
the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World
Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the
Observatory for the protection of human rights defenders, demand the
release of Chinese journalist Zhang Zhan on the 5th anniversary of her
arrest.
We,
the undersigned press freedom and human rights organisations, strongly
condemn the Chinese government’s ongoing arbitrary detention of
journalist, human rights defender and former lawyer Zhang Zhan, on the 5th anniversary of her arrest.
Zhang is an outspoken journalist, and one of many Chinese citizens
who are imprisoned for exercising their right to freedom of the press
and expression. Zhang Zhan was first detained
on 14 May 2020, after she travelled to the city of Wuhan to
courageously report on the early stages of Covid-19 pandemic,
documenting overflowing hospitals, empty shops, and families of victims
and independent journalists being harassed by the authorities. She is
currently persecuted for supporting pro-democracy activist Zhang
Pancheng, and reporting on human rights violations in the country.
At the beginning of March 2025, NGOs sources confirmed that Zhang
will soon be tried on the charge of "picking quarrels and provoking
trouble", a charge often used by Chinese authorities to suppress
journalists, writers and human rights defenders. The date of her trial
is still unknown, as she remains detained in the Pudong Detention Center
in Shanghai, facing an additional up to 5 years in prison if convicted.
Zhang Zhan, was apprehended by the police on 28 August 2024, only
three months after completion of an earlier four-year sentence under the
same charge, while travelling to her hometown in the Shaanxi province
in northwest China. In the weeks leading up to this incident, Zhang kept
reporting on the harassment of activists in China on her social media.
Her first detention was deemed arbitrary under international human
rights law by the UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in a 2021 opinion. In a November 2024 letter
to the Chinese government, nine UN Special Procedures mandates raised
lengthy concerns about patterns of repression against Zhang Zhan,
alongside 17 other human rights defenders, requesting the government to
take measures to prevent any irreparable damage to life and personal
integrity, and halt the violations of her human rights. The government’s
three-lines response on Zhang Zhan’s status merely asserted that “her
legitimate rights and interests
have been fully protected.”
China remains one of the most repressive countries for freedom of
speech and press, and ranks 178th out of 180 in the 2025 Reporters
without Borders (RSF)’s World Press Freedom Index, and is the world’s leading jailer of journalists and writers, according to data from Committee to Protect Journalists, RSF, and PEN America.
The charge “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” was used against over 100 individuals
for peacefully exercising or defending human rights between 2019 and
2024. Chinese authorities often used this crime to justify political
persecution of human rights defenders, including journalists. In March
2024, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, also
called on the Chinese government to revise the “picking quarrels and
provoking trouble” provision and release all HRDs, lawyers, and others
detained under that charge.
In detention, Zhang Zhan has engaged in intermittent hunger strikes
to protest her arbitrary detention. In 2021 she was twice hospitalised
due to severe malnutrition and a rapid deterioration of her health.
In January 2025, Zhang Zhan again re-started her hunger strike in
protest of her second arrest. In response, detention centre personnel
have subjected her to forced-feeding through a gastric tube – a practice
that may amount to torture or other ill-treatment, in violation of the
Convention against Torture ratified by China in 1988. Her lawyer has
been allowed to meet with her but has been under pressure from the
authorities not to disclose the case details publicly.
Despite the relentless calls of the international community to
immediately release Zhang Zhan, the Chinese government continues to
ignore the urgency of the matter. Yet, the restrictions against
journalists or anyone who speaks out against the abuse of the government
has tightened drastically, despite the right to freedom of speech and
press being guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, as well as by Article 35 of the Chinese Constitution.
Zhang’s prosecution is being used as a warning to others who might
challenge the government’s propaganda machine.
Zhang Zhan’s arbitrary detention is a mockery of China’s
international human rights obligations to ensure humane prison
conditions. Furthermore, Zhang Zhan has committed no internationally
recognisable offence, but has been subjected to harsh punishment for
reporting on facts and exercising her right to freedom of expression.
We urge the Chinese government to:
- Immediately and unconditionally release Zhang Zhan and put an end to all acts of harassment towards her;
- Guarantee Zhang Zhan’s safety, psychological well-being and access to adequate and independent medical care;
- Allow her unhindered access to her family members and lawyer of her choosing;
- Submit its state report to the
Committee against Torture (CAT), which is over five years overdue,
including providing information on the conditions in secret detention
and Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location, and providing
concrete legislative measures and data about the implementation of
previous CAT recommendations concerning these practices;
- Put an end to systemic crackdown
on civil society, including harassment, arbitrary detention, enforced
disappearances, and arbitrary detention of journalists, writers, and
human rights defenders.
We urge UN bodies and officials, including High Commissioner
for Human Rights Volker Türk, and governments concerned with human
rights in China to:
- Increase support to journalists, writers, and human rights defenders across and from China;
- Advocate for the releases of
arbitrary detained journalists, writers, and human rights defenders,
including using high-level meetings to publicly call for the release of
specific individuals by name;
- Condition international law
enforcement interactions and rule of law cooperation with the Chinese
government on the government’s dropping all charges and quashing all convictions against those wrongfully detained for peacefully exercising
or advocating human rights, including press freedom and right to
information.
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