Lawmakers lambast Yahoo for role in Chinese journalist's arrest

News Type: Event — Seeded on Wed Nov 7, 2007 9:58 AM EST

Article Source: CNN

politics, china, human-rights, yahoo, free-speech, freedom-of-the-press, shi-tao

"While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-California, said angrily after hearing from two top Yahoo Inc. officials defending their company's role in the jailing of Chinese journalist Shi Tao.

Yahoo!'s Michael Callahan reiterated the company's regret and contended that Yahoo employees in China had little choice but to comply with the government's demands.

Lantos rejected that argument. "I do not believe that America's best and brightest companies should be playing integral roles in China's notorious and brutal political repression apparatus," he said.

Lawmakers demanded to know what Yahoo would do to help Shi's family and reacted with derision when neither Yang nor Callahan provided a concrete answer.

Human rights and free-speech advocates have lambasted U.S. companies including Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. for helping the Chinese government stifle the flow of ideas in exchange for greater access to the country's rapidly growing Internet market. But the convictions of Shi and another Chinese journalist Yahoo provided information about have focused the most strident criticism on Yahoo.

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{"commentId":1165949,"authorDomain":"MinnieApolis"}

MinnieApolis

I think that American media should pull out of all coverage of the China Olympics. This is just my opinion.
But I am not going to buy any tee shirts or other souvenirs for this Olympics, thanks anyway.

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#1 - Wed Nov 7, 2007 4:40 PM EST

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US Lawmakers Criticize Yahoo Officials	Associated Press	Tue Nov 6	0
House Committee Head Lambasts Yahoo Inc.	Associated Press	Mon Nov 5	0
Yahoo Execs On the Hot Seat Over Their Questionable Actions	The Washington Post	Thu Nov 8	26
Yahoo's Jerry Yang on the Hot Seat for Human Rights in China	Business Week	Tue Nov 6	1
Senator to Yahoo: morally you are Pygmies - BizTech - Technology - smh.com.au	The Sydney Morning Herald	Tue Nov 6	0

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Lawmakers lambast Yahoo for role in Chinese journalist's arrest

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