Missing Chinese journalist who reported on COVID-19 resurfaces after two months

One of three of China’s citizen journalists, who had reported on coronavirus situation in Wuhan, has suddenly resurfaced after going missing for almost two months. Li Zehua, 25, said in a YouTube video that he was forcibly quarantined despite no coronavirus symptoms.

Zehua had published a video on YouTube where he tried to show the temporary porters working to transport bodies of deceased who apparently succumbed to the novel coronavirus. He later posted Live footage of police arriving at his home and he was not heard since then until the latest YouTube video.

China’s attempt to conceal information has become a major concern amidst pandemic as the other two whistle-blowers remain missing. Citizen journalists Chen Quishi and Fang Bin uploaded videos of the impact of the deadly virus in Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in China, and their whereabouts remained unknown since then.

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Human rights lawyer Quishi uploaded several videos in which he captured the footages of overwhelmed staff in Wuhan hospital due to the staggering number of patients. In one of the videos, he even said that “scared” because of getting stuck between the devastation caused by the virus and Chinese authorities. 

Quishi’s Weibo account was subsequently deleted on February 6 and the lawyer’s family was told that he had been kept under “quarantine” despite no COVID-19 symptoms. Pierre Haski, President of Reporters Without Borders, told a French daily that there is a scarcity of information on the missing pair saying the only certainty is they are in the hands of the Chinese authorities.

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Stifling press freedom

China, which has been ranked 177 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index, has used the coronavirus pandemic to further tighten the grip on media by banning the publication of any reports that question how it has been managed. “Of the 100-plus journalists and bloggers now in prison, some held in life-threatening conditions, at least three journalists and three political commentators have been arrested in connection with the pandemic,” said Reporters Without Borders in its analysis.

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(Image credit: YouTube screengrab / Kcriss Li李澤華)