Journo who ‘disappeared’ after Wuhan chase reappears

Beijing, April 23 (IANS) A Chinese journalist who was chased and then detained in Wuhan, where the coronavirus pandemic originated last December, has reappeared after almost two months, a media report said on Thursday.

Li Zehua, who is thought to be 25, broadcast the chase and his detention by police on February 26, and had not been seen publicly since.

On Wednesday, he published a video saying he spent two weeks in “quarantine” in Wuhan, followed by more quarantine in his home town, said the BBC report.

He was told the quarantine was needed as he had been to “sensitive areas”.

Li is a citizen journalist who went to Wuhan in February, after another journalist, Chen Qiushi, went missing. In his first video from Wuhan he explained why we was there, the BBC reported.

“Before I entered Wuhan, a friend who worked in the Chinese mainstream media told me… all the bad news about the epidemic has been collected by the central government.

“The local media can only report the good news about the patients’ recovery and so on. Of course, it remains uncertain whether that’s true, because this is just what I heard from my friends,” Li had said.

His stories included an alleged cover-up of infections, and a busy crematorium. They were watched millions of times on Chinese platforms, YouTube, and Twitter, according to the BBC report.

Meanwhile, Chen Qiushi is still missing, according to a Twitter account run by friends. He has been out of contact for 75 days, said the BBC report.

Another journalist who reported from Wuhan, Fang Bin, has also not been heard from since February.

–IANS

ksk/