China jails blogger in ‘rumour’ crackdown

BEIJING: A Chinese court jailed a blogger for three years today, state media reported, the first person to be sentenced in a government-led crackdown on so-called internet rumours.
Qin Zhihui – 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.
China has said the rumour 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 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 Twitter-like Sina Weibo, said official Xinhua news agency.
It added that the 30-year-old had posted several false reports, including one saying Beijing had granted a 200 million yuan (RM104 million) compensation to a foreigner who died in a train crash in east China.
Reports said Qin had run a "black PR" firm, taking money from companies to post online comments discrediting rivals. He pleaded guilty and apologised at a hearing last week, Xinhua said.
Separately, Chinese-American blogger and outspoken government critic Charles Xue was released on bail on Wednesday after being arrested in August for suspected involvement in prostitution and "group licentiousness", a euphemism for group sex.
The 60-year-old Xue had attracted 12 million followers on Weibo, and during his detention was shown making an apology on state television.
Authorities judged he "no longer posed a danger to the public", the state-run Global Times newspaper said today, adding that the blogger was suffering from an illness. – AFP