Four Chinese men have been sentenced to up to two and a half years in jail as punishment for operating a pornographic Web site, the country’s official English-language newspaper reported Friday.
The Beijing No. 1 People’s Intermediate Court sentenced Liang Hongbin, Li Yufe, Yu Jianhong and Chen Dong to prison terms ranging from 1 year to 2 1/2 years, the China Daily newspaper reported.
The four men, who are aged from 20 to 25, were arrested in August during a government-led crackdown on Internet pornography and phone sex services that began in July, the paper said.
Since July, Chinese police, acting largely on tips provided by informers, have shut down 1,125 pornographic Web sites and arrested 445 suspects, China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) said earlier this month.
Among those arrested who have been sentenced to jail was a 22-year-old university student surnamed Xie, who was sentenced in September to four years in prison for operating a pornographic Web site.
To reward informers and encourage the public to report pornographic content online, MPS officials earlier this week handed out cash rewards to 20 informers. Three of them received rewards of 2,000 renminbi ($241) each. The other 17 were given rewards of 500 renminbi each for providing information to the police.
