HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A journalist in Vietnam has been sentenced to seven years in prison for blackmailing a cement company.

The state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper
says Phan Ha Binh, who works for the Tien Phong newspaper, was
convicted of extortion at a one-day trial Thursday in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to Friday's report,
Binh told the judge he wrote three negative stories about the cement
company in 2010 and that he told the company he wouldn't write
additional stories if it paid him $10,000. He told the company that for
another $3,000, he'd write positive stories.

The company reported the story to police, who caught Binh receiving $11,000 from the company at a restaurant last October.

Tien Phong often runs investigative stories and is one of the communist country's most popular newspapers.