Reporting by journalists like the BBC's John Sudworth has revealed the scale and severity of the Chinese government's large network of detention camps, in which more than a million Uighurs and other minorities are thought to have been detained, mistreated and abused.

And in the last couple of weeks, in addition to the heavy restrictions already placed on foreign journalists, China's government has adopted a new tactic: labelling independent coverage as "fake news".

In this latest episode of J-Lab – a podcast brought to you by the Civic Journalism Lab at Newcastle University –  we speak to John Sudworth (who had just arrived in Wuhan to report on the latest efforts by international experts investigating the origins of COVID-19). John explains what it's like to be a journalist in China at present, describes the challenges of reporting this story and offers advice to journalists working in countries with authoritarian regimes.This is the latest in a series of episodes that explores the reporting behind some of the biggest news stories of the last 12 months.