Fifteen adherents of the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement went on trial in northeast China accused of hijacking cable TV networks in two cities earlier this year, state media reported.
The 15 appeared in the intermediate court of Changchun, the same city where they aired Falun Gong messages to unsuspecting cable TV viewers in March, the China News Service said.
They also hijacked networks in Songyuan, a city about 150km north of Changchun, according to the news service.
The group included Zhou Runjun, a woman in her early 50s, who was arrested just days after the hijacking, amid a sweeping crackdown by local police, according to previous reports.
The hijacking of the airwaves in Changchun and Songyuan on March 5 was a major propaganda coup for the Falun Gong group, which has been brutally repressed as a cult in China for more than three years.
Falun Gong has recently stepped up its campaign for the hearts and minds of the world's most populous country and is using increasingly sophisticated tactics in its information campaign.
Apart from airing their views on Chinese cable TV, they have also been reported to have hijacked the satellite signals of government-run television stations.