Seven cases of fake reporters extorting money under the guise of exposing negative news were published by the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications as part of a nationwide campaign.
Around 73 such cases have been investigated nationwide, with eight very serious, the office said in a statement on Wednesday.
Ma Shiping, the subject of one of the cases, was sentenced to 5.5 years of imprisonment with a fine of 30,000 yuan (about 4,730 U.S. dollars) by a court in Jiangsu Province, east China, for blackmailing local government, state firms and individuals for more than 120,000 yuan. He acted as a journalist threatening to publish negative news about them in Shandong and Jiangsu provinces.
