Yu Huafeng, who once managed the Guangdong-based Southern Metropolis Daily, was released on Feb. 8, the government Web site china.com.cn reported on Monday. He was due for release in 2012.

The move came a week after the early release of Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong-based reporter for Singapore's Straits Times who was jailed for spying for Taiwan.

'The 39-year-old Yu Huafeng, with thinning hair, hugged close his old colleagues and behind his glasses his eyes still showed a warm and rich spirit,' the report said, showing a picture of Yu embracing his family.

Yu was among 40 jailed writers The International PEN organisation called on Chinese President Hu Jintao to release in an appeal late last year that urged Beijing to honour freedom of expression ahead of the 2008 Olympics.

He was among three journalists from the Southern Metropolis Daily who were detained in 2004 on corruption charges.

But many believed the case against them was fabricated as a warning to others after their newspaper helped spark popular outrage when it reported the death of a man in police custody in 2003 and was at the forefront of reporting the SARS virus.

A Guangdong court sentenced Yu to 12 years in March 2004, but the sentence was later cut to eight years in an appeal.

Li Minying, the founder and former editor-in-chief of Southern Metropolis Daily who was jailed at the same time, served half of a six-year sentence before he was released almost exactly one year ago.

Both men were the subject of a letter signed by more than 2,300 journalists, who challenged a provincial court to release them and insisted on their innocence.

Cheng Yizhong, also a former editor at the newspaper, was held for five months without being charged and released in Aug 2004.

But China also jailed dissident writer Lu Gengsong last week and leads the world in imprisoning journalists, according to figures compiled by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

China's ruling Communist Party says controls on the media are necessary to preserve stability in the country of 1.3 billion, but with nearly 22,000 journalists accredited for the 2008 Games, its efforts are likely to be tested. -- REUTERS