A netizen from East China's Zhejiang Province, has been jailed and fined for spreading panic-triggering rumors regarding radiation poisoning in China's sea water.

Chen will be detained for ten days and fined for 500 yuan, the local public security bureau decided. He posted a message online, saying a "reliable source" had told him that Japan's quake-damaged nuclear plant would severely pollute Shandong's sea water, and urged people to hoard salt. The message spread quickly leading to supermarket shelves being cleared of the product as shoppers rushed out to buy it.

Yang Zhen, Policeman of Hangzhou Public Security Bureau said "Many worried netizens called to tell us that there was a message circulating on the Internet without confirmation, which triggered panic."

Chen said his so-called "reliable source" was just bits of information he'd picked up across the Internet.

Mr. Chen, rumormonger said "I saw a thread on a chatline, and I forwarded as a message, I didn't think much about its source."

Chen later issued a notice on the Internet, saying his message was false, and hoped netizens would stop spreading it, but the damage had been done. However, latest figures from the Ministry of Commerce show that the country's salt supply has returned to normal and panic buying has stopped.

vivi笔记：

panic-triggering：引起恐慌的
radiation poisoning：辐射中毒
public security bureau：公安局
reliable source：可靠的消息来源
Ministry of Commerce：商务部
panic buying：抢购

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