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Date: Thursday, November 15, 2007

Yahoo Settle with Families of Jailed Chinese Dissidents

Yahoo has chosen to settle their lawsuit with the families of two jailed Chinese journalists. A friend of the pair filed the suit, as the journalists are currently serving 10-year jail sentences for “incitement to subvert state power” and breaching state secrecy laws.

Wang Xiaoning, jailed in 2002, and Shi Tao, jailed in 2004, were both arrested due to information Yahoo had passed on to the Chinese government. By giving the Chinese government the pair’s email and ISP addresses, many critics argue that Yahoo have breached the basic human rights of these men.

The lawsuit was filed in April, although Yahoo initially denied responsibility. After admitting providing information to the Chinese government, they then said that they were obliged to do so as a condition of them operating in the country. As this information came to light, Yahoo founder Jerry Yang and his company were heavily criticised during a hearing at Capitol Hill. Tom Lantos, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Internet boss, “While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies." The company faced further criticism after the World Human Rights Organisation pointed out that the journalists were “serving 10-year prison sentences as a direct result of the information Yahoo provided to Chinese authorities.”

After the hearing, Yahoo did not admit fault for the matter but Jerry Yang offered his apologies to Shi’s mother and vowed to “provide financial, humanitarian and legal support” to families of the journalists. They also vowed to set up a “human rights fund to provide humanitarian and legal aid to dissidents.”

Although Lantos believes the case should have been settled long ago, he remained pleased with the outcome. He said: “It took a tongue-lashing from Congress before these hi-tech titans did the right thing and coughed up some concrete assistance.”

Sources:

Guardian
Times
BBC