China cracks down on phony journalists

BEIJING - China investigated 200 criminal cases involving fake journalists during a two-month national campaign, a national anti-illegal publication office said on Thursday.

The campaign, which began in mid-October, targeted criminals impersonating reporters for blackmail or fraud, according to a statement from the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications.

The statement cited several serious cases, including one involving a man named Tang Junhui who cheated a dozen victims out of 180,000 yuan (29,000 US dollars) by posing as a reporter for a local evening newspaper. Tang was sentenced to four years in prison earlier this month by a court in central China's Hunan Province.

Police in Xuzhou City in East China's Jiangsu Province discovered 16 members of four criminal organizations who impersonated reporters from news websites, which they set up illegally. They blackmailed government departments, enterprises and individuals by threatening to release negative information online. They were involved in about 120 blackmail cases in seven provinces and illegally obtained more than 3 million yuan.