Jailed Chinese Reporter Joins Yahoo! Suit

taoman1 writes "The Associated Press reports that Shi Tao, who was sentenced in 2005 to 10 years in prison, is now seeking compensation from Yahoo. He claims the Hong Kong and Chinese branches of the company provided information to the Chinese authorities that led to his arrest. 'Shi, a former writer for the financial publication Contemporary Business News, was jailed for allegedly providing state secrets to foreigners. His conviction stemmed from an e-mail he sent containing his notes on a government circular that spelled out restrictions on the media. Yahoo has acknowledged turning over data on Shi at the request of the Chinese government, saying company employees face civil and criminal sanctions if they ignore local laws. It denies Yahoo Hong Kong was involved.'"

Comments

Not to suggest ...

[WrongSizeGlass]

... that China is right in their efforts to censor the Internet or stifle free speech, but did Yahoo! actually do anything legally wrong?

Re:Not to suggest ...

[jellie]

The article lacks detail regarding the actual claims and which lawsuit it is, considering that there are probably many lawsuits against China by dissidents who have been oppressed or punished by the country. Here's an article from the Washington Post, dated two months ago, that said Wang Xiaoning filed a lawsuit against Yahoo! (I'm guessing this is the same suit). They argue that by giving up their information, Yahoo! is supporting torture (I believe), a violation of the Alien Tort Statute. My guess is that this Shi Tao is being added as a plaintiff to this lawsuit. From the article:

The suit, in trying to hold Yahoo accountable, could become an important test case. Advocacy groups are seeking to use a 217-year-old U.S. law to punish corporations for human rights violations abroad, an effort the Bush administration has opposed... Yahoo is guilty of "an act of corporate irresponsibility," said Morton Sklar, executive director of [World Organization for Human Rights USA]. "Yahoo had reason to know that if they provided China with identification information that those individuals would be arrested."

If that's true (which will need to be debated in court), then yes, Yahoo! did do something legally wrong.

Re:Is "morally" dead nowadays?

[speaker of the truth]

NOT to have turned over this information would have been at least as 'morally reprehensible' as turning it over because individuals would suffer for it -and- they would be breaking the law. Bullshit. In no way is losing money is as morally reprehensible as being thrown in jail for trying to shed light on censorship. Nowhere near even close. And that's all that would happen to Yahoo, it would lose money because it wouldn't be able to operate under Chinese law and so therefore would have to pull out. However they chose to operate under Chinese law, and so therefore they should be held accountable for every morally reprehensible thing they do.

Re:Is "morally" dead nowadays?

[speaker of the truth]

Who are we to say that OUR moral code is more valid than the Chinese government's moral code? That sounds like a great way to let anything happen. Genocide in a small african nation? Not our problem, perhaps their moral code is different. Trampling of civil liberties in Europe? Well we'd like to help, but perhaps the moral code of those Europeans are different so we just can't risk it.

Or we could accept that some things are morally repugnant and do everything in our power to stop those we can.

Also, what happens to the people who are working for Yahoo!China? Do they lose their jobs just so Yahoo! can be morally upright? People always say how another search company will rise to replace Yahoo if it leaves, so these people aren't out of jobs, they'll just be hired by those we can't deter from operating in China.

China sucks, film at 11

[billcopc]

Okay, so this guy is suing Yahoo because he's under fire for breaking "laws" in his own country. Look here, if I'm committing a "crime", say uh, smoking dope in my Canadian backyard and some NDP neighbor calls the pigs, well my neighbor is an asshole but I was still technically breaking the local law. I can harbor seething distaste for my politically-inferior cohabitant, but I have no legal ground to sue him.

Do we agree with China's corrupt censorship ? No. Does that mean it's ok for us to ignore their government's laws and impose our liberal views on THEIR citizens ? No. This guy got what was coming to him. If he doesn't want to be punished for speaking his mind, he should move to a free country.