Chinese philanthropist Chen Guangbiao has denied ordering death threats to be sent to journalists who have written stories about him lying about the sum of his donations.

The journalists said the threats came with photos of dead bodies and they had also been subjected to a barrage of online insults over their reports, Shandong Business News reported yesterday.

But Chen told the newspaper he had nothing to do with the alleged threats and he denied hiring the "Internet Army" to post insults online.

On Wednesday, Zhao Hejuan, a reporter, wrote on her microblog that she had called police after receiving a number of death threats, the newspaper said.

The reporter said the anonymous threats were e-mails containing photos of rotting bodies with heads where "the eyes had been scratched out and the worms were wriggling all over the skins."

Although there were no direct evidences Chen was involved, Zhao said she believed the threats were connected to her reports on Chen.

"I hope the police could soon react to the threats as the e-mails and photos are acts that have gone far across the bottom-line of my tolerance," Zhao said on her microblog.

Another reporter, Ye Wentian, said on his microblog that he and colleagues had received similar death threats after they published a story entitled "Disclosing Mysteries of China's Foremost Philanthropist."

Ye also said that members of the so-called Internet Army, computer users hired to post comments, started to insult him and his family on his microblog front page over a period of some hours.

Chen told the newspaper: "I'm a giver to charity. Those boring deeds are not of my interest. Let the time judge everything."

He denied using the Internet Army to attack reporters, saying: "It will be a social tragedy if philanthropists have to hire them to maintain their good reputations."

In an unrelated case, movie director Feng Xiaogang told the newspaper he had also had death threats.

The director of "If You Are The One" and "Aftershock" said: "For a long time we have been receiving death threats by people hidden in dark corners."

People sending threatening e-mails can be charged with disturbing social order and be held responsible for any emotional damage suffered by the victims.