Two high-ranking officials of a Chinese financial newspaper company have been detained on Thursday while investigations on an alleged extortion scheme hounded the paper.

Chinese authorities had launched a probe on the paper's involvement in bribery cases after the 21st Century Business Herald's executives confessed to extorting "huge payments" from companies to quash critical coverage.

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The widely-read newspaper allegedly charged 200,000 (US$33,000) to 300,000 yuan (US$49,000) from more than 100 companies in the country since November 2013.

The huge amounts, disguised as advertising fees, were paid for positive coverage and "protection" from negative reports.

These speculations surrounding the company resulted in the decision of authorities to take into custody Shen Hao, the paper's Publisher, and Chen Donyang, its General Manager, on Thursday while investigations are being held. This followed the confessions of two 21st Century Business Herald executives on bribery accusations.

Part of the influential Nanfang Media Group based in Guangzhou, the 21st Century Business Herald's website has already been shut down earlier in September as eight of its executives are being investigated.

Liu Dong, the paper's website president, and Editor-In-Chief Zhou Bin had appeared on the state-run China Central Television (CCTV) and confessed their crimes on national television.

"Companies preparing to list in I.P.O.s were treated like a fat piece of meat or a cake to be carved up," Tao Kai, an executive in one of two public relations firms involved in bribery, stated in an interview with CCTV.

Probe on the famous financial newspaper came amidst a series of Chinese government crackdown on media outlets' involvement in graft and corruption.

Despite the confessions, though, the New York Times noted how the arrested journalists did not seem to be speaking of their own free will.

Since China's President Xi Jinping decided to pursue economic criminals in the country, Chinese media, print and broadcast, as well as online, have been heavily guarded and censored by their companies.

Tagsjournalist, financial newspaper, Crackdown, Graft, Bribery