A Chinese reporter accused of extortion in exchange for suppressing negative news stories was sentenced to seven years in prison in eastern Zhejiang Province on Thursday.

Meng Huaihu, 43, former head of the Zhejiang branch of China Industrial and Commercial Times, was convicted of extorting 630,000 yuan (US$ 80,400) from an auto dealer, a construction firm and a petrol company.

The people's court in Shangcheng district, Hangzhou, the provincial capital, said Meng attempted to extort 3.73 million yuan between 2001 and 2003, but was only able to collect 630,000 yuan.

The court heard that Meng received 350,000 yuan from a Sinopec's Zhejiang gas station after promising not to write a story about a driver who had trouble at the filling station. Meng gave the driver 170,000 yuan.

Meng, who was arrested in December last year, tried but failed to extort money from China's appliance maker Galanz and Ping An Life Insurance Company after he threatened to write negative stories about their operations.

In May, China's State Administration of Press and Publications (SAPP) said reporters Wang Qiming, Bu Jun and Chen Jinliang, had also been arrested for extortion. They worked for the China Food Quality Newspaper and two other Beijing-based newspapers.

(Xinhua News Agency December 1, 2006)