Yahoo looks for US help on China dissidents

The internet provider Yahoo has asked the US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice for assistance in freeing two Chinese journalists jailed after it complied with investigators and revealed the views they had expressed online.

Yahoo made its request after US lawmakers and human rights advocates accused it of collaborating with an oppressive regime. Last year the late California Democrat Tom Lantos, who was the foreign affairs committee chairman, told Yahoo at a government hearing: ‘While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies.’

Yahoo maintained it had received a subpoena-like order and had had to give information about the online activities of the two journalists, Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning.

The appeal to Rice, by chief executive Jerry Yang, is Yahoo’s latest effort to repair its reputation. In November the company settled a lawsuit with Shi, Wang and a family member who sued on their behalf. Neither side disclosed the settlement details, saying only that Yahoo would pay the legal fees of the three and ‘provide financial, humanitarian and legal support to these families’. At the same time Yahoo set up a human rights fund to provide humanitarian and legal aid to dissidents jailed for speaking out online.

Yang told Rice in his letter that the company ‘deeply regrets the circumstances’ that led to the jailing of the two journalists. He said the action runs counter to the company’s values. He wrote: ‘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.’

The case has raised questions about whether internet companies should co-operate with governments that deny freedom of speech and frequently crack down on journalists.