Frankfurt - A German court jailed a television journalist for 32 months Thursday for corruption.

Until his disgrace, Juergen Emig, 63, had fronted sports programmes on Hessischer Rundfunk public television and headed its sports broadcasting team.

Convicting him of misappropriation and bribe-taking, the court in Frankfurt said he obtained more than 300,000 euros
(400,000 dollars) from sponsors between 2001 and 2004 to highlight products or minor sports.

In one case, he devised coverage of a bicycle road race so that the cameras showed placards of sponsors' brands and the images highlighted towns that had paid coverage fees to a firm working for Emig.

Public TV in Germany carries commercials, but does not usually allow product placement in television programmes.

Judge Christopher Erhard criticized the broadcasting company for not keeping a closer eye on Emig. (dpa)