China has punished 27 newspapers which violated press regulations in 1999, the State Press and Publication Administration said in Beijing January 12.

According to sources from the administration, some newspapers published stories with political errors, some fabricated news stories, some illegally published supplements, and some distributed sensationalized stories.

After detecting all the violations, the administration and its local branches punished the 27 newspapers, a few of which were shut down.

Statistics show that China has 2,160 newspapers, with a yearly circulation of 26 billion copies.