Li Yuanjiang, former publisher of Guangzhou Daily Group, is currently editing and writing stories for his prison paper, the Procuratorial Daily reported recently.

Li, 53, who was jailed for accepting bribes, is responsible for editing the front page and writing commentaries for the prison newspaper.

Li said he would like to do something he was familiar with and interested in while he served his jail term in a Guangdong prison.

"I know the operations of the paper, this is my speciality," Li was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Li was sentenced to 12 years in jail in September 2004, though he is only due to serve another eight years.

Now Li counts how many stories he has written every month, which serves as a form of evaluation of his behaviour and will help reduce his sentence in the future, the paper said.

Li is said to be able to contribute about 10 stories to the prison newspaper every month.

In addition to editing the newspaper and writing stories, Li also spends much time reading newspapers and other publications available in prison.

Li said he still had deep attachment to the Guangzhou Daily, where he was editor-in-chief and publisher for a decade.

Currently, Li is allowed to see his family members once a month.

Li said the most painful thing in prison was not the loss of freedom and title, but the fact he cannot live with his family.

With a 13-year-old son who is now in junior high school, he felt really sorry for not being around while he grows up, Li told the paper.

Li, once one of the country's major media figures, became the publisher of Guangzhou Daily at the age of 38 in 1991.

Under his leadership, Guangzhou Daily developed into China's top newspaper group in 1996.

Guangzhou Daily's circulation reached more than 1.63 million, the second largest in the Chinese mainland, while the newspaper's advertisement revenues were the highest.

Because of his good performance, Li was promoted to director of the Publicity Department under the Guangzhou Municipal Committee of Communist Party of China in 2000.

Li's case was exposed after a former Guangzhou Daily Group employee wrote a letter to the local government to report Li's acceptance of a bribe in the first half of 2001. Li was detained in 2002.

In 2004 he was convicted of accepting bribes valued at 330,000 yuan (US$41,250), plus US$19,000 and HK$10,000 (US$1,290) between 1991 and 2001.

Li was also fined a total of 100,000 yuan (US$12,500).

(China Daily August 9, 2006)