Date: Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Yahoo pay damages to Chinese journalists
In a dramatic change of heart, Yahoo has settled their lawsuit with the Chinese journalists who were jailed due to information the company passed to the Chinese government. It is not yet known how much the settlement will amount to, although Yahoo has vowed to “provide financial, humanitarian and legal support” to families of the jailed dissidents.
Shi Tao, a journalist who once wrote for Contemporary Business News, was jailed for ten years in 2004. Shi was convicted of breaching state secrecy laws after Yahoo passed on his ISP address and email to the Chinese government. In 2002, Wang Xiaoning, the other journalist in this case, was also jailed for ten years for a similar offence. Again, Yahoo passed information to the Chinese government, which ultimately led to Wang’s arrest.
A relative acting on behalf of the pair filed the lawsuit against Yahoo in April. The case has been something of a PR disaster for Yahoo, as the search engine giant’s behaviour has been criticised for breaching the pair's human rights. Yu Ling, Wang’s wife, claimed that the information Yahoo had turned over to the government had caused her husband and others to be “subjected to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment… for expressing their free speech rights and for using the Internet to communicate about democracy and human rights matters.”
When the lawsuit was initially filed, Yahoo acknowledged passing information on to the Chinese government but claimed they had no choice in doing so. However, after the case went to congress and the firm were heavily criticised, they were forced to rethink their plea. After the settlement was announced, Yahoo boss Jerry Yang revealed the reason for their change of heart in a statement. He said: “After meeting with the families, it was clear to me what we had to do to make this right for them.”
Sources:
Guardian
Times
BBC
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