Zhang Zhan has been jailed for four years

Ms Zhang was critical of the early response to the virus outbreak in Wuhan, writing in February that the government 'didn't give people enough information' and 'violated human rights'. She was jailed for her livestream reporting from Wuhan as the COVID-19 outbreak unfurled, her lawyer said Monday, almost a year after details of an "unknown viral pneumonia" surfaced in the central China city. Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer, was sentenced at a brief hearing in a Shanghai court for allegedly "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" for her reporting in the chaotic initial stages of the outbreak. Her live reports and essays were widely shared on social media platforms in February, grabbing the attention of authorities, who have punished eight virus whistleblowers so far as they defang criticism of the government's response to the outbreak.