[Dialogue] No Subject

[LAURELCG@aol.com]

Jim, Thanks for the article on media corruption.  This came on the D.Min. 
list from a colleague who said it was from BBC.  Jann McGuire


Last Updated: Wednesday, 7 September 2005, 08:18 GMT 09:18 UK  


 E-mail this to a friend   Printable version  

 

Yahoo 'helped jail China writer'  

 

Western internet firms are rushing to invest in China 

Internet giant Yahoo has been accused of supplying information to 

China which led to the jailing of a journalist for "divulging state 

secrets". 

Reporters Without Borders said Yahoo's Hong Kong arm helped China 

link Shi Tao's e-mail account and computer to a message containing 

the information. 


The media watchdog accused Yahoo of becoming a "police informant" in 

order to further its business ambitions. 


A Yahoo spokeswoman said it had to operate within each country's 

laws. 


"Just like any other global company, Yahoo must ensure that its local 

country sites must operate within the laws, regulations and customs 

of the country in which they are based," said Mary Osako. 


Shi Tao, 37, worked for the Contemporary Business News in Hunan 

province, before he was arrested and sentenced in April to 10 years 

in prison. 


According to a translation of his conviction, reproduced by Reporters 

Without Borders, he was found guilty of sending foreign-based 

websites the text of an internal Communist Party message. 


Reporters Without Borders said the message warned journalists of the 

dangers of social unrest resulting from the return of dissidents on 

the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, in June 2004. 


Censorship fears 


The media organisation accused Yahoo of providing Chinese 

investigating organs with information that helped link Shi Tao's 

personal e-mail account and the text of the message to his computer. 


"We already knew that Yahoo! collaborates enthusiastically with the 

Chinese regime in questions of censorship, and now we know it is a 

Chinese police informant as well," Reporters Without Borders said in 

a statement. 


Western internet companies have regularly been criticised for 

agreeing to China's strict rules governing the internet, which 

Communist Party leaders fear could be a tool to spread dissent. 


Microsoft was criticised in June for censoring what bloggers write. 


The companies say they have to abide by local regulations, and point 

out that since China is set to be the world's biggest internet 

market, they cannot ignore it. 


Earlier this month Yahoo paid $1bn (£556m) for a stake in China's 

biggest e-commerce firm, Alibaba.com.