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China news tagged with: Shi Tao (48)

• Yahoo Asks US Gov’t to Help Dissidents

  

  Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang has written to Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice, asking the U.S. government to demand the release of two Chinese dissidents, Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning, who were both imprisoned after Yahoo! supplied their personal information to authorities. From AP:

  In the letter to Rice, Yang wrote that the company “deeply regrets the circumstances” that led to the jailing of the two journalists. He said it runs counter to company values.

  “We know we have an important role to play in advocating for the release of these political dissidents; we are also aware of the limits of private American companies engaging in foreign policy,” he wrote.

  Yang called the State Department to take the lead and “actively pursue the release of Shi Tao, Wang Xiaoning and other Chinese dissidents who have been imprisoned for exercising internationally recognized rights of expression.”

  In a separate report, AP says that in 2007, Yahoo! spent $1.6 million lobbying the U.S. government on issues relating to China and to foreign jurisdiction over U.S. companies.

  » Read more
  • February 21, 2008 11:17 PM

• Yahoo Settles with Chinese Writers – Sarah Lai Stirland

  

  Yahoo! has reached a settlement in the case of writers Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning, who were imprisoned after Yahoo! handed over their personal information to Chinese authorities. From Wired:

  Terms of the settlement weren’t disclosed. But a source at Yahoo said the company has been “working with the families, and we’re working with them to provide them with financial, humanitarian and legal assistance.”

  Yahoo has also agreed to establish a global human rights fund to provide “humanitarian relief” to support dissidents and their families. The source said that details still have to be worked out. [Full text]

  Read interviews with Shi Tao’s mother and Wang Xiaoning’s wife, via RFA.

  [Image: Wang Xiaoning's wife, Yu Ling, via Wired]

  » Read more
  • November 13, 2007 2:35 PM

• Running Aground on the Ethical Shoals: Jerry Yang Meets Shi Tao’s Mother – RFA

  

  From RFA Unplugged blog:

  Yahoo’s chief executive Jerry Yang and executive vice president Michael Callahan faced a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing in Washington yesterday over providing misleading information to Congress last year as part of an investigation into the company’s role in disclosing former journalist and cyberdissident Shi Tao’s identity to Chinese authorities.

  Shi Tao was arrested in November 2004 after sending a government internal document delivered to his publication to several foreign websites. The document was issued as a warning to journalists of the possible social destabilisation and risks posed by returning dissidents on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, and requested that they not report on the occasion. [Full Text]

  » Read more
  • November 9, 2007 8:30 AM

• Yahoo Criticized in Case of Jailed Dissident – Dibya Sarkar

  

  From AP:

  Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Jerry Yang testified to lawmakers on Tuesday that the company has been “open and forthcoming” about its role in a Chinese government investigation that led in 2005 to a journalist’s imprisonment.

  “We have answered every question, provided every requested piece of information and worked with you in good faith,” he said in prepared testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

  Lawmakers have accused the company of holding back information in its role regarding the arrest of Chinese journalist Shi Tao. The Chinese government accused Shi of leaking state secrets and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. [Full Text]

  Here is a video link for the hearing from LA Times.

  Read also Yahoo executives grilled by Congress over China policies: Live-blogging by Declan McCullagh, Searching for an Explanation: No Results Found by Dana Milbankand and Statement of Chairman Lantos at hearing, Yahoo! Inc.’s Provision of False Information to Congress:

  » Read more
  • November 6, 2007 9:00 AM

• Yahoo In Apology On China – Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Mure Dickie

  

  From Financial Times:

  A top Yahoo official who has come under fire for the company’s role in the 2004 imprisonment of a dissident in China apologised on Thursday for failing to tell US lawmakers that Yahoo knew more about the case than he initially acknowledged in testimony last year.

  Michael Callahan, Yahoo’s executive vice president and general counsel, said in a statement ahead of a congressional hearing next week that he “realised” that Yahoo had additional information about the nature of the probe into one of its users, Shi Tao, a journalist now serving a 10-year prison sentence in China, months after he testified that Yahoo had “no information” about the investigation. [Full Text]

  Read also Yahoo! apologizes ahead of Congressional grilling by Rebecca MacKinnon.

  » Read more
  • November 2, 2007 3:31 AM

• Yahoo Summoned To Washington Over Chinese Arrests – Elinor Mills

  

  From CNet News.com Blog:

  The chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee is summoning Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang to Washington to talk about “how the Internet company gave false information to Congress about its role in a human rights case in China that sent a journalist to jail for a decade,” according to a release from the committee chairman’s office.

  Chairman Tom Lantos has asked Yang and Yahoo General Counsel Michael Callahan to appear at a hearing on November 6.

  “Our committee has established that Yahoo provided false information to Congress in early 2006,” Lantos said in the statement. [Full Text]

  Read also Committee Asks Yahoo! Executives to Testify About False Information Given to Congress in China Human Rights Case by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs:

  » Read more
  • October 16, 2007 5:01 PM

• Yahoo Says Just Following Lawful China Orders, Sir – Dan Harris

  

  The China Law Blog has uploaded a PDF copy of the motion-to-dismiss brief Yahoo! filed in U.S. Federal Court yesterday in an effort to avoid a lawsuit over the company’s provision of user information to the Chinese government. The file comes with commentary from blog co-founder Dan Harris:

  The brief was so long that to be able to upload it onto the blog, I had to delete the first ten pages, consisting mostly of its table of contents and its table of authorities.

  To grossly simplify, Yahoo’s main defense seems to be that it was merely following a lawful Chineese governmental request. I am not expert on most of the legal issues involved in this case, nor do I even claim to have been following it at all closely. Nonetheless, after reading this brief, I am of the view this case may end up being very important to U.S. companies doing business internationally, and not just in China. [Full Text]
  

  » Read more
  • August 29, 2007 1:59 AM

• U.S. to Probe Yahoo in Chinese Reporter Arrest – Foster Klug

  

  From AP, via MSNBC.com:

  Congressional investigators plan to look into whether Yahoo officials misrepresented the Internet company’s role in the arrest of a Chinese journalist sentenced to a decade in jail.

  House Foreign Affairs Chairman Tom Lantos ordered the investigation after a human rights group released a document that it said raised questions about what Yahoo knew when it shared information with authorities about Shi Tao. Beijing officials had sought Shi for sending an e-mail about Chinese media restrictions. [Full Text]

  » Read more
  • August 4, 2007 6:14 AM

• More Yahoo! China Documents Emerge – Rebecca MacKinnon

  

  Rebecca MacKinnon again posts commentary on new documents (originally posted by Duihua Foundation) showing that Yahoo employees knew they were dealing with political charges when they handed over personal information that landed Yahoo users Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning in jail. She also responds to comments from Roland Soong at ESWN:

  I don’t think it is meaningless to push companies like Yahoo! to be more mindful of the human rights situations they will face before they decide whether or not to open a particular product or service in any given market. There is a reason Microsoft never introduced a localized Chinese Hotmail and why Google hasn’t introduced a local Chinese Gmail. Because they don’t want She Taos and Wang Xiaonings on their hands. Companies can make choices about how they engage in a market and what services are appropriate given the political situation.

  Let me emphasize: this is not about foreigners changing China. Or it isn’t for me. This is about how companies interact with governments everywhere and how individual users lose out in the process. [Full text]

  » Read more
  • July 31, 2007 7:53 AM

• Shi Tao’s Case: Yahoo! Knew More Than They Claimed – Rebecca MacKinnon

  

  Rebecca MacKinnon posts excerpts of a document sent to Yahoo!’s Beijing office from the Beijing State Security Bureau requesting information about Yahoo! user Shi Tao, who is now serving a ten-year sentence for revealing state secrets. As Rebecca points out, the document (originally translated and posted by the Duihua Foundation) specifically says the investigation concerns potential state secrets charges, even though Yahoo! executives have consistently denied knowing what type of crime was being investigated. From RConversation:

  So Yahoo!’s Beijing office was informed from the beginning that this was not an investigation into a potential murderer, thief, child pornographer, or terrorist, but somebody suspected of giving “state secrets” to foreigners. As Dui Hua’s Joshua Rosenzweig says: “One does not have to be an expert in Chinese law to know that “state secrets” charges have often been used to punish political dissent in China.” [Full text]

  » Read more
  • July 29, 2007 10:57 AM

• Yahoo’s China Policy Rejected – BBC

  

  Amidst much criticism for cooperating with the Chinese government in internet censorship, and facing a lawsuit from jailed journalist Shi Tao for turning over information that helped convict him, Yahoo released a statement on Monday expressing dismay “that citizens in China have been imprisoned for expressing their political views on the Internet.” But proposals to put a stop to censorship and to form a human rights committee within the company has been shot down by shareholders. From the BBC:

  Yahoo shareholders have rejected plans for the company to adopt a policy that opposes censorship on the internet.

  Proposals to set up a human rights committee which would review its policies around the world, specifically China, were also heavily defeated.

  At the company’s annual general meeting, the censorship proposal won only about 15% of support while only 4% backed the idea of a human rights committee.[Full text]

  See also Yahoo Blasts China on Freedom of Speech from CNN for more details on the statement Yahoo released on Monday.

  » Read more
  • June 12, 2007 9:05 PM

• Jailed Chinese Reporter Joins Yahoo Suit – Dikky Sinn (Updated)

  

  From AP, via Yahoo News:

  A jailed Chinese reporter accused of leaking state secrets has joined a U.S. lawsuit claiming Yahoo Inc. helped the Chinese government convict dissidents, his mother said Sunday.

  Shi Tao, who was sentenced in 2005 to 10 years in prison, is seeking compensation from the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet company, claiming Yahoo Hong Kong and Yahoo China provided information to the Chinese authorities that led to his arrest. [Full Text]

  See also Amnesty’s International’s petition, directed to Yahoo, to “free Shi Tao from prison in China!”

  Update: Yahoo has apparently released a statement to the media against China’s arrest of Internet writers, though it doesn’t specifically mention Shi Tao. AP reports:

  » Read more
  • June 10, 2007 4:46 PM

• Jailed Chinese Journalist Wins Press Award – AFP

  

  From AFP, via Mail & Guardian:

  The mother of jailed Chinese journalist Shi Tao wept and punched the air on Monday as she accepted a press-freedom award on her son’s behalf from world media bosses in Cape Town.

  “He has only done what any courageous journalist should do,” Gao Qinsheng told an annual gathering of the World Association of Newspapers (Wan).

  Wiping away tears to receive the Golden Pen of Freedom trophy from World Editors’ Forum (WEF) president George Brock, Gao said the award was a huge comfort to her 38-year-old son. [Full Text]

  Read Golden Pen acceptance speech by Gao Qinsheng, mother of laureate Shi Tao:

  » Read more
  • June 5, 2007 8:09 AM

• Yahoo Didn’t Violate Laws in Case of Jailed Chinese Journalist – Sylvia Hui

  

  From AP via USA Today:

  Investigators said Wednesday there was not enough evidence to show that Yahoo’s Hong Kong branch provided private information that helped convict a Chinese reporter accused of leaking state secrets.

  The case raised questions about whether Internet companies should cooperate with governments that deny freedom of speech and frequently crack down on journalists.

  Yahoo! Hong Kong Limited was accused of helping Chinese authorities by Hong Kong lawmaker Albert Ho, who filed a complaint last year with the city’s privacy commissioner. Ho alleged the Internet company provided information that helped convict journalist Shi Tao, sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2005 on mainland China.[Full Text]

  » Read more
  • March 14, 2007 9:56 AM

• Jailed Chinese journalist to sue Yahoo in US – Dan Nystedt

  

  From PC Advisor, an update on the Shi Tao case:

  A Chinese journalist jailed in part due to email evidence provided by a Yahoo subsidiary plans to file a lawsuit in the US against the internet company within the next few months.

  “We’re also trying to line up other victims for a class-action. We’ve been in touch with a few others, but we haven’t signed anyone up yet. It’s a very sensitive issue because there could be reprisals against their families,” said Albert Ho, a legislator in Hong Kong and lawyer in the case.

  A Yahoo spokeswoman in Hong Kong could not be reached for comment. [Full text]

  » Read more
  • September 22, 2006 8:55 AM

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