From AP via Teipei Times:
A journalist serving a 13-year jail term for reporting about a bogus irrigation project has been released five years early to official acclaim for his determination in fighting against corruption (see CDT report on this).
Gao Qinrong, previously an investigative journalist for the Xinhua news agency in Shanxi Province, was imprisoned in 1998 and released earlier this month, media activists and state news reports said.
Such developments rarely win a mention in China’s state-controlled media, given political sensitivities over Beijing’s violations of freedom of the press and other civil liberties.[Full Text]