Yahoo aids China in arrest of journalist

By Aussiegirl

This is a very disturbing development that may be only a hint of what is to come, as internet giants like Yahoo, Google and Microsoft battle with each other in their eagerness to cash in on the lucrative markets in Red China. What we have here is private corporations getting in bed with communist tyrants and cooperating with the abridgement of free speech as a price of entry into countries with repressive regimes. As such, free speech in our own country will become threatened by these very private companies that provide a lot of our internet access. The globalization of the loss of human rights in the name of the almighty dollar. I don't know how our laws can cope with this.

CNN.com - Group: Yahoo aided China - Sep 6, 2005: "BEIJING, China (AP) -- A French media watchdog said Tuesday that information provided by Internet powerhouse Yahoo Inc. helped Chinese authorities convict and jail a journalist who had written an e-mail about press restrictions.

The harsh criticism from Reporters Without Borders marks the latest instance in which a prominent high-tech company has faced accusations of cooperating with Chinese authorities to gain favor in a country that's expected to become an Internet gold mine.

Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo and two of its biggest rivals, Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN, previously have come under attack for censoring online news sites and Web logs, or blogs, that include content that China's communist government wants to suppress.
Reporters Without Borders ridiculed Yahoo for becoming even cozier with the Chinese government by becoming a police informant in a case that led to the recent conviction of Chinese journalist Shi Tao.

'Does the fact that this corporation operates under Chinese law free it from all ethical considerations?' Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. 'How far will it go to please Beijing?'