Rumormonger blogger jailed for three years

An Internet blogger was jailed for three years by a Beijing court for defamation and "provoking trouble" Thursday, the first person to be sentenced after a crackdown against online rumormongering.

Qin Zhihui, known as "Qinhuohuo" online, was found guilty of spreading rumors via Sina Weibo from 2012 to 2013. Beijing's Chaoyang district court ruled that Qin's actions seriously harmed social order.

Qin's attitude in confessing truthfully was taken into consideration and the court used leniency in the sentence. The court published the trial process via its Weibo account.

Qin, 30, said in court that he would not appeal. Sun Xiaoyang, Qin's lawyer, said Thursday she had her "own opinions" about the evidence and facts of the case.

"The defense opinions are not fully revealed and reported, especially the core content," Sun wrote in her blog, adding that only a complete disclosure of defense opinions can show the quality of defense work.

Qin worked at an online "black PR" firm which made fake posts for profit. He was found guilty of spreading rumors about several celebrities including popular television hostess Yang Lan.

He also accused Lei Feng, the country's most famous Good Samaritan, of leading a luxurious life. In one widely spread post, Qin claimed that Beijing had paid a large sum in compensation after a foreigner died in a train crash in Zhejiang Province in 2011. It was reposted 11,000 times and commented on 3,300 times.

The rules regarding online behavior were tightened in September 2013 in a bid to clamp down on slander and online falsehoods. If an inaccurate post is clicked on or reposted more than 500 times, the author could face a sentence of up to three year's jail.

Some questioned the legal basis to define the action as "seriously harming social order," since there is no specific evidence to support the term.

Li Xiao, one of the judges, explained the ruling via Sina Weibo Thursday, saying that Qin's rumor about the train crash not only caused chaos via the Internet, but also triggered public dissatisfaction and disrupted the government as it worked to cope with the aftermath of the event.

"Cyber space has both the features of virtual space and reality," Li said.

Beijing lawyer Yi Shenghua said that while the ruling presents an example for future cases involving Internet rumors and contributes to a healthy network environment, he believed that Qin's behavior should not be categorized as a crime since the criteria in reality are different from the online environment.

"Authorities have been cautious about this ruling," Yi said. However, the judicial interpretation which means that the online environment is considered the same as the public environment is unreasonable.

"If there's no specific criminal law regarding online behavior other than a judicial interpretation, there is no legal basis to determine the behavior as criminal," Yi said.

China Internet Network Information Center said in January 2014 that China has 490 million consumers of online news and 277 million social network users. The Internet is a primary source of information and a crucial platform in shaping public opinion.

Zhang Zhian, vice president of the School of Communication and Design at Sun Yat-sen University, said he thinks the case will not affect the way people express ideas, but it may affect their choice of platform.

"People may use Weibo less after this, but there are still other social networks they can choose, such as WeChat," Zhang said.