지난해 12월달부터, 중국의 우한에서 Wuhan Virus가 폭발적으로 퍼져 혼란에 빠지기 시작할때부터, 이광경을 다큐멘터리 형식으로 중국뿐 아니고 전세계에 타전했던, 전직 변호사 Zhang Zhan씨가 어제 중국의 재판정에서 4년 징역형을 언도 받았다. 중국의 기준에서 볼때는 당연한 재판이었고, 당연한 형집행이었지만, 중국외의 전지구촌에서는 황당하다는 반응이었고, 홍콩에서도 비난이 심한것 같다.
특히 미국은, Wuhan에서 아무도 도와주지 않은 상황에서 독자적으로 coronavirus전염병의 확산을 보도했던 한 여인의 보도에 범죄혐의를 씌워 징역형을 언도한 재판을 강하게 비난한것이다. 이여기자의 보도로 이번 Covid-19 Pandemic이 Wuhan에서 발생한것을 전세계는 알게 된것이다.
중국의 한재판정에서는 전직 변호사 Zhang Zhan씨를 거짖정보를 퍼뜨린 혐의를 들이대고, 4년형을 월요일 언도한 것이다.
Mike Pompeo국무장관은 화요일 발표한 성명서에서, "중국공산당은 중국 국민들의 매우 중요한 건강정보를 포함하여, 중국공산당의 노선에 의문을 품은 사람들에게 입을 꽉다물게 하기위해서는 그어떤 조치도 취한다는, 공산당식 통치방법을 또한번 보여준 사례다"라고 비난한 것이다.
국무장관은 설명하기를 중국공산당( CCP)은 철저히 정보를 봉쇄하고, Wuhan에서 시작된 바이러스 정보를 자기네쪽에 유리하도록 변경시켜 보도케 하고, 진실을 말하는 다른 사람들을 무지막지하게 입에 자물쇠를 채우게 했다고 비난한 것이다.
전직 변호사 Zhang씨는 지난 2월에 거주하던 '상하이'에서 Hubei성의 Wuhan으로 여행을 떠났었다. 그녀는 맨처음 Wuhan에서 전염병이 발생한것을 인정한 정부관계자의 응답을 포함하여 온라인으로 우한의 상황을 맨처음 중국은 물론 지구촌에 보도한 기자역활을 한것이다. Zhang씨의 변호사는 이번 판결을 완전히 법을 따르지 않은 불법판단한 일방적 재판이었다고 설명했다.
트럼프 대통령 행정부는 계속해서 이번 Covid-19 Pandemic은 중국에서 처음 발생한 전염병이라고 반복해서 중국을 비난 해오고 있다. 37세의 Zhang Zhan씨는 "엉터리 보도를 계속해서 분쟁을 일으켰고 문제를 증폭시켰다"라고 죄명을 씌워, 피고 Zhang의 재판과정을 다 지켜본 변호사 Zhang Keke씨는 설명했다. 중국정부는 반정부 운동, 또는 인권활동가들에게 이러한 범죄혐의를 씌우고 재판전에 세우는것은 흔한 일이다.
Zhang씨는, 중국에서 처음 이번 전염병이 퍼지기 시작한것을 보도한 기자들이 감금되거나 실종된 많은 기자들중의 한명인 셈이다. 정부당국자들은 이러한 보도를 흑색선전이라고 몰아부친 중국정부를 비난한 보도를 완전히 봉쇄 차단하기위해 무차별적으로 철퇴를 가한 것이다.
요즘 우리나라가 제2 제3의 Pandemic이 전국을 휩쓸어, 매일 같이 확진자 1000명이 넘는 지옥으로 변하고 있어, 국민들은 불안에 떨고 있다. 지난 2월에, 전지구촌이 중국에 국경봉쇄를 단행 했을때, 문재인 정부도 똑같은 조치를 취했어야 했는데, 오히려 더 활짝 국경을 개방하여 중국인 관광객들이 한국으로 벌떼처럼 몰려 들면서, 한국은 Coronavirus Pandemic지옥으로 만든것인데도, 국경봉쇄를 하지 않았었다. 같은 기간에 자유중국은 즉시 중국과 국경봉쇄를 해서 지금 자유중국은 확진자가 한국에 비하면 거의없는 나라로 다른나라의 부러움을 사고 있을 정도다. 누구를 탓하랴.
The United States has strongly condemned China for the criminal conviction of a woman who independently reported on the coronavirus outbreak in the city of Wuhan, where the first cases were identified.
A Chinese court sentenced former lawyer Zhang Zhan to four years in prison on Monday for allegedly spreading false information.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Tuesday that, "The Chinese Communist Party has shown once again it will do whatever it takes to silence those who question the Party's official line, even regarding crucial public health information."
He said the CCP restricted and manipulated information about the outbreak in Wuhan from the start and "brutally silenced other brave truth-tellers."
Zhang traveled from Shanghai to Wuhan, in Hubei Province, in February. She then posted firsthand accounts of the situation online, including the authorities' response to the outbreak. Zhang's lawyer has described the ruling as unjust.
US President Donald Trump's administration has repeatedly claimed that China is responsible for the pandemic.
Zhang Zhan, 37, was found guilty of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," according to one of her defense lawyers Zhang Keke, who attended her hearing. The offense is commonly used by the Chinese government to target dissidents and human rights activists.
A former lawyer, Zhang traveled some 400 miles from Shanghai to Wuhan in early February to report on the pandemic and subsequent attempts to contain it, just as the authorities began reining in state-run and private Chinese media.
For more than three months, she documented snippets of life under lockdown in Wuhan and the harsh reality faced by its residents, from
overflowing hospitals to
empty shops. She posted her observations, photos and videos on Wechat,
Twitter and
YouTube -- the latter two of which are blocked in China.
Her postings came to an abrupt stop in mid-May, and she was later revealed to have been detained by police and brought back to Shanghai. According to Amnesty International, at one point during her detention Zhang went on hunger strike, during which time she was shackled and force fed, treatment the group said amounted to torture.
Her lawyer Zhang Keke, who visited Zhang earlier this month while she was in detention, described on social media that Zhang had a feeding tube attached to her nose and mouth. He said her hands were tied to prevent her from removing the device, and that she suffered from constant headache and pain in her stomach and throat.
CNN did not immediately receive a response from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on allegations of Zhang's mistreatment in detention.
Zhang's lawyer said she attended Monday's hearing in a wheelchair, as she had become frail during her time in detention.
In her
indictment, prosecutors accused her of "publishing large amounts of fake information" and receiving interviews from overseas media outlets, including Radio Free Asia and the Epoch Times, to "maliciously stir up the Wuhan Covid-19 epidemic situation."
But Zhang's lawyer said the prosecutors did not display any concrete evidence of the "fake information" Zhang was accused of fabricating during the court proceedings. He added that his client, in a gesture of protest, barely spoke during the trial and refused to plead guilty.
Zhang is the first citizen journalist known to have been sentenced for her role in reporting on the coronavirus pandemic. But it is not her first run in with the authorities.
According to her indictment, she was twice detained for 10 days in 2019 for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," but the document did not specify what had resulted her detention.
In a statement on Twitter Monday, the British Embassy in Beijing said Zhang's case "raises serious concerns about media freedom in China," adding that a British diplomat tried to attend her trial but was not allowed access.
The embassy said that Zhang "is one of at least 47 journalists currently in detention in China. The whereabouts of other citizen journalists -- including Chen Qiushi and Fang Bin -- is unknown." It urged China to "release all those detained for their reporting."
One of many
Zhang is one of a number of independent reporters who have been detained or disappeared in China since the beginning of the pandemic, as the authorities clamped down on coverage of the virus and propaganda outlets went into overdrive portraying Beijing's response as effective and timely.
In February, Chen Qiushi, who had
live-streamed videos from Wuhan during the city's lockdown and posted reports on social media, disappeared. In September, he was
reported to be under "state supervision." Two other independent journalists --
Li Zehua and
Fang Bin -- were also detained following their coverage of the Wuhan outbreak.
"Under the guise of fighting the novel coronavirus, authorities in China have escalated suppression online by blocking independent reporting, information sharing, and critical comments on government responses," Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a Hong Kong-based group,
said in a report earlier this year.
China is the biggest jailer of journalists in the world,
according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and tightly controls the press at home while blocking most foreign media outlets via the Great Firewall, its vast online censorship and surveillance apparatus.
In March, China expelled journalists from the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal,
in an unprecedented move against the foreign press. Beijing said the move -- which came amid a wave of critical reporting about China's initial response to the coronavirus -- was a
response for recent restrictions by Washington on how Chinese state media operates in the US.
While sporadic outbreaks have popped up and been swiftly suppressed with lockdowns and quarantines, China has largely controlled the virus, allowing the country to return to relative normality.
Restrictions on the press, however, have not lifted, and Chinese state media has begun aggressively pushing an alternative origin story for the pandemic, with claims the coronavirus may have been circulating outside of the country prior to the initial outbreak in Wuhan.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/28/asia/china-journalist-zhang-zhan-intl-hnk/index.html
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