"China International Economic Television Station is legal. It has a permit issued by the government of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region," Sun Xinping, Board Chairperson with the station, was quoted as saying.

CCENTV was asked to stop operation last December, otherwise the country's State Administration of Radio Film and Television would have its business license revoked.

Several other online television stations were also on the list, including www.cimn.tv, www.cntv.net.cn and www.vctv.cn.

"We are not a mainland-registered online television station, and we don't do any interviewing or reporting on the mainland," Sun told the newspaper yesterday. "Therefore we don't need a permit from the administration."

However, the station has been in operation abiding by China's laws, Sun said.

The state administration couldn't be reached for comment, the report said.

The administration has ordered the illegal online television stations to suspend operations immediately, or the local telecom authority will suspend Internet access services to the companies, according to the administration's statement last month.

The statement said the illegal stations were run by private Internet companies.

They often use big names associated with official TV stations and media companies in China to lure and mislead Internet users, the statement said.

Many station operators have branches and reporters in many other cities and have promoted their programs through various media events.

"They even broadcast advertisements or information using the name of official TV stations, which has a negative impact on genuine TV stations," the statement said.

A permit to broadcast audio and video programs via the Internet issued by the administration is required for all Internet TV station operators, according to Chinese regulations.