Five Chinese journalists of a newspaper and its website were today sentenced to up to 12 years in jail for extorting USD 125,000 from government officials by blackmailing them in central Hunan Province.
Zhang Huanrui, vice president of Modern Consumer News, and four of his subordinates were found guilty of blackmailing half a dozen government departments and officials for 815,000 yuan (USD 125,000) by threatening them with negative news reports, said the Yanfeng District People's Court in Hengyang city.
The defendants used the potential consequences of the negative reports to coerce the agencies and officials to pay money, promising in return to delete negative reports or not to conduct follow-up reporting, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported, citing the court.
Zhang was sentenced to 12 years in prison. One subordinate was given a six-year jail term. Two were sentenced to two years, four months and 20 days behind bars.
The other was given a three-year suspended sentence.
