China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Sunday publicized a judicial interpretation which sets specific rules for the country's courts to order penalties to criminals sabotaging TV and radio facilities.

The interpretation said that criminals, whose sabotage causes information block for disaster early warning, rescue and others concern public security, could be convicted three to seven years of imprisonment on the charge of sabotaging TV and radio broadcast facilities.

Other circumstances that could be convicted the imprisonment include sabotage that causes malfunction in the broadcast of TV and radio stations, according to the new law.

According to statistics with the SPC, there have been more than 5,000 cases of sabotaging cable TV wires and more than 1,000 cases of sabotaging state-owned fiber optic lines and other cases of stealing broadcast facilities since 2006 in China.

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2011)