There is a growing concern amongst the Chinese social media users, who have been tracking the developments inside Coronavirus-hit Wuhan through the reports of former CCTV journalist Li Zehua. However, a few days back Li Zehua livestreamed his arrest after being chased around the quarantined-city of Wuhan by Chinese security forces, who finally tracked him down at his apartment.
Wuhan, a city of three million people, has been under lockdown since January and the Chinese People's Party has imposed restrictions on the coverage of any news out of the epicenter of Coronavirus.
Li Zehua was employed with China People's Party-sponsored CCTV network but quit his job after finding the restrictions imposed on the coverage of the coronavirus outbreak, which has now become a global pandemic.
Last week, two Chinese citizen journalists disappeared while covering the coronavirus in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak in Hubei province. Fang Bin and Chen Qiushi have been a critical role in the sharing of videos and pictures online from Wuhan that has been completely been sealed-off by the Chinese government.
Recently, China expelled three foreign journalists of the Wall Street Journal over an opinion piece that the Chinese People's Party termed as "racist."
Li Zehua is now the third Chinese citizen journalist to go missing after being detained by the authorities in Wuhan in recent weeks. His arrest took place while he was live streaming on YouTube. The live footage of the arrests shows unknown officials entering his apartment and stopping the recording.
Knowing that he will be detained, Li also secretly filmed his arrest scene via Skype and that live footage was later uploaded on YouTube by his friend, showing unknown Chinese officials searching through Li's flat before that video too goes dark.
Earlier in the day, Li in a live-streamed YouTube video claimed that he was being chased around Wuhan by Chinese officials traveling in an unmarked vehicle. The citizen journalist live-streamed, the dramatic car chase, before abruptly stopping it as he was driving.
Since the Coronavirus outbreak, China's censor machinery has been working overtime to silence any voice of dissent and it has been people like Li who have been working against the machinery.
