China Sentences Five to Prison for Internet Postings

In its ongoing repression of Internet speech, the Chinese government has sentenced five Falun Gong members to prison for posting an article to a discussion board that accused authorities of mistreating a jailed colleague. In a terse news story, the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, stated that a court in western Chongqing found the three men and two women guilty of "vilifying the government's image through spreading fabricated stories on persecution of cult practitioners" and had given them prison terms of five to 14 years.