Wired News
China Suspends Site for 'Rumors'
Reuters
7:00 a.m. May. 15, 2000 PDT
SHANGHAI -- Chinese authorities have suspended and fined a website based in
the central city of Wuhan for
spreading rumors that damaged the government's image, the official Wenhui
Daily newspaper said on Sunday.
"China Finance Information Network downloaded and spread rumors that damaged
the government's image,"
the newspaper quoted an announcement by the Wuhan Public Security Bureau as
saying.
"The website has been suspended from service and was fined 15,000 yuan
($1,800)," it said.
The announcement gave no further details. The web firm was not immediately
available for comment.
But an announcement posted on the home page of cfi.net.cn quoted police as
saying the 15-day suspension
was due to a Hong Kong newspaper article about corruption by a provincial
official that it had posted in
March.
"An investigation by government authorities showed the news article was
untrue and the website had
trespassed on the underlying person's reputation and affected foreign
investment," the website
announcement said.
The booming Internet has posed a threat to China's strict controls on media
and news content. China set up
an office in April to regulate news on websites.
Copyright © 1999-2000 Reuters Limited.
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