BEIJING >> Zhang Zhan, thought to be the first person in China imprisoned for documenting the early days of the coronavirus pandemic in the country, was expected to be released Monday, after serving a four-year sentence.

But in a sign of how eager the Chinese government remains to suppress public discussion, it was unclear on Monday evening whether Zhang, 40, had been set free. The lawyer who represented Zhang during her trial, Zhang Keke, said he could not reach her mother all day. Reached by phone, officials at the Shanghai prison administration declined to comment.

Zhang was an early symbol of the mistrust that many Chinese harbored toward the government’s handling of the outset of the pandemic, and the hunger they had for unfiltered information. A former lawyer from Shanghai, she traveled in early 2020 to Wuhan, the city where the virus was first detected, as a self-styled citizen journalist. For months, she filmed amateur, often shaky videos that contradicted the government’s narrative of a smooth, triumphant response to the crisis.

She had never done any reporting before, friends said at the time, but she was motivated by her Christian faith and a sense of outrage at the government’s one-sided narrative.