The Coalition For Women In Journalism is severely worried about the health of citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, who is the only woman journalist who remains under bars for reporting on Covid-19 pandemic.

American reporter for Buzzfeed News, and member of The Coalition For Women In Journalism, Megha Rajagoapalan has become the latest foreign journalist to be victimised by China, which has a history of retaliating against news organizations and individual journalists for critical coverage.

Ranked as the fifth least free country in the world according to the World Press Freedom Index, China is notorious for its treatment of journalists, especially foreign journalists. The Coalition For Women In Journalism is worried about retaliatory actions by the Chinese government against journalists who are from the US.

Zhang Zhan, a citizen journalist based in Shanghai, has been arrested after initially being detained for her coronavirus reporting. She has been held by the police in the municipality’s Pudong district on “public disturbance charges”.