Yahoo backed on helping China trace writer – Mure Dickie
The head of the Chinese internet company that recently acquired Yahoo’s China operations has defended the US portal’s decision to help communist authorities track down and prosecute an independent-minded local journalist.
Yahoo has been widely criticised for assisting the case against journalist Shi Tao, who was jailed for 10 years in April apparently for revealing information about government controls on the media…
But Jack Ma, founder and chief executive of Alibaba.com, which took control of Yahoo China as part of a strategic alliance with the US company announced in August, said such criticism was unjustified. “I think it’s unfair to Jerry,” said Mr Ma, one of China’s most high-profile internet entrepreneurs. “Business is business; it’s not politics.”
