China, Coronavirus and Censorship
An Anonymous Coward writes:
China clamps down in hidden hunt for coronavirus origins
"Picking Quarrels & Provoking Trouble" - China Slams Journalist With 4 Years in Jail Over COVID ReportingMOJIANG, China (AP) - Deep in the lush mountain valleys of southern China lies the entrance to a mine shaft that once harbored bats with the closest known relative of the COVID-19 virus.
The area is of intense scientific interest because it may hold clues to the origins of the coronavirus that has killed more than 1.7 million people worldwide. Yet for scientists and journalists, it has become a black hole of no information because of political sensitivity and secrecy.
A bat research team visiting recently managed to take samples but had them confiscated, two people familiar with the matter said. Specialists in coronaviruses have been ordered not to speak to the press. And a team of Associated Press journalists was tailed by plainclothes police in multiple cars who blocked access to roads and sites in late November.
More than a year since the first known person was infected with the coronavirus, an AP investigation shows the Chinese government is strictly controlling all research into its origins, clamping down on some while actively promoting fringe theories that it could have come from outside China.
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:
At the beginning of the pandemic, the Communist Party filled the airwaves with positive headlines about how well it was mitigating the virus' spread. The Chinese government also went on a censoring spree, removing online content posted by journalists or citizen-journalist who reported firsthand accounts of the public health crisis unfolding in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of COVID-19. The government even went to the extent of detaining people who reported on the crisis, alleging they were spreading lies.
Citizen journalist Zhang Zhan is the first known person to be handed a four-year jail term for her reporting in Wuhan.
Zhan provided firsthand accounts of overcrowded hospitals and empty streets that challenged the government's official narrative.
She was convicted on Monday at the Shanghai Pudong New Area People's Court for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," according to Reuters.
The verdict is a warning to all journalists in the country that the communist government is coming after those who exposed their shortcomings during the initial months of the virus outbreak. More importantly, Zhan's case shows the government has a zero-tolerance policy for critics.
"You have not converted a man because you have silenced him."
-- John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn.(link)
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