Reporter held in China to face spy charge - paper

HONG KONG - China is likely to formally charge detained Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong with spying as early as Friday, a Hong Kong newspaper said.

Ching, the China correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times, will either be sentenced to prison or expelled from the mainland after being convicted by a court, the South China Morning Post said on Thursday, citing unidentified sources.

Ching, 55, was detained by Chinese security agents in April and later accused of spying for unidentified foreign intelligence agencies. He is now under house arrest in Beijing.

His detention sparked fears that Beijing is tightening its noose over media freedom in Hong Kong, a former British colony which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

International journalist groups have pressed China to release Ching or at least provide evidence substantiating its claims of his wrongdoing.

- REUTERS