A Chinese court yesterday jailed a blogger for three years, state media reported, the first person in China to be sentenced in a government-led crackdown on so-called “Internet rumors.”
Qin Zhihui (秦志暉) — among hundreds of bloggers reportedly detained in an official campaign to assert greater control over China’s popular social media — was found guilty of “slander” and “picking quarrels and provoking troubles,” state broadcaster CCTV said.
Qin is known online as Qin Huohuo (秦火火).
China has said the rumor crackdown launched last year is aimed at maintaining social order, but rights groups have accused Beijing of limiting freedom of speech online to protect the Chinese Communist Party.
Prosecutors at a Beijing district court said Qin had “impacted society and seriously harmed social order” by posting a series of inaccurate reports on micro-blogging Web site Sina Weibo, Xinhua news agency said.
It said that the 30-year-old had posted several false reports, including one saying Beijing had granted 200 million yuan (US$32.2 million) in compensation to a foreigner who died in a train crash in eastern China.
Reports said Qin had run a “black PR” firm, taking money from companies to post online comments discrediting rivals. He pleaded guilty and apologized for his crime at a hearing last week, Xinhua said.
Separately, Chinese-American blogger and government critic Charles Xue (薛蠻子) was released on bail on Wednesday after being arrested in August last year for suspected involvement in prostitution and “group licentiousness,” a euphemism for group sex.
The 60-year-old Xue had 12 million followers on Weibo, and during his detention was shown making an apology on state television.
Authorities judged that he “no longer posed a danger to the public,” the state-run Global Times newspaper said yesterday, adding that the blogger was suffering from an illness.
Chinese microblogs have become drivers of public opinion in recent years, with commentators drawing attention to official corruption, pollution and other issues.
Under regulations announced in September last year, Chinese Internet users may face three years in prison for writing defamatory messages that are reposted 500 times.
Web users may also be jailed if offending posts are viewed more than 5,000 times.
Hundreds of bloggers have been arrested since the campaign began, rights group Amnesty International has reported.
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