Editor gets 10 years for 'secrets' leak
A newspaper editor was yesterday sentenced by a court in Hunan province to 10 years in prison on charges of leaking state secrets to overseas media.
The Intermediate People's Court in Changsha , the capital of Hunan, yesterday convicted Shi Tao , 37, who worked as a news editor for Contemporary Business News between February and April last year, Xinhua said.
At an editorial meeting in April last year, participants were informed of certain documents and warned not to distribute the text, which was labelled 'top secret', Xinhua reported.
Shi was said to have taken notes during the meeting and sent an electronic version of his notes to an unidentified overseas publication the next day. The story was quickly picked up by overseas websites.
Shi had pleaded not guilty.
Earlier reports said the document was a warning by the government that dissidents would organise activities to mark the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
