media - Critical editors in trouble with "cooked up" charges

Editors of outspoken newspapers got into trouble with "cooked up" charges, said the lawyer of one of them in a press conference in Beijing, reports Reuters.
Yu Huafeng, a former manager of the Southern Metropolis Daily, got last week 12 years for embezzlemen and former editor-in-chief got eleven years. Cheng Yizhong, another editor of the paper, want arrested last Friday and faces even heavier penalties. Lawyer Xu Zhiyong, representing Yu, said the charges were "cooked up" and brought up as the paper revealed last year the SARS epidemy in Guangdong and focuses on many reports on workers' issues.