Two former officials have been jailed for leaking confidential economic data in a move that acknowledges flaws in the mainland's loose financial regulations and sends a warning to journalists seeking scoops.
Four other officials from the securities industry are also being held for questioning, senior government and prosecutorial officials said yesterday.
Du Yongsheng, a spokesman for the National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets, said at a briefing that journalists should be wary of accessing such information and exposing it before it was officially released by the government. Otherwise, they could face similar charges.
Sun Zheng, a former deputy director of the secretary's office at the National Bureau of Statistics, had been sentenced to five years in prison, said Li Zhongcheng, a deputy director of the Supreme People's Procuratorate's Department for Dereliction of Duty and Infringement on Citizens' Rights.
Meanwhile, Wu Chaoming, a former deputy director of the People's Bank of China's financial history research centre, was sentenced to six years in prison.
The leaked data pertained to the mainland's gross domestic product, consumer price index and money supply figures between June 2009 and January this year.