BEIJING, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Dozens of journalists from various Chinese media organisations were paid hush money totalling 125,700 yuan ($18,500) not to report a coal mine accident in September, state media said on Thursday.

One of the journalists was later found to be a fraud but the coal mine, Huozhou Coal and Electric Group, nevertheless paid him 34,500 yuan, the China Daily said.

The pit accident killed one person in northern Shanxi province in September. The mine failed to report the death to the local government, the Beijing News said.

China has the most dangerous coal-mining industry in the world. A total of 3,786 coal miners died in gas blasts, floodings and other accidents last year as companies, often flouting safety regulations, rush to feed demand from a booming economy.

"We are firmly against journalists accepting bribes and people posing as journalists," the China Daily quoted Li Ruifeng, head of the Shanxi province bureau of press and publications, as telling a news conference on Wednesday.

Scams involving journalists and people posing as journalists to demand hush money are common in China.

Authorities jailed four men in October who tried to blackmail a local official by threatening to write incriminating information about government abuse of power in land usage.

In January, a reporter for a Beijing-based newspaper was beaten to death by hired thugs during an investigation into an unlicensed coal mine in Shanxi. Officials there said he lacked accreditation and suggested he may have been seeking payoffs. (Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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