Yahoo Settle Chinese Dissidents’ Lawsuit

It seems Yahoo did get the US Congressional message last week after Chief Yahoo Jerry Yang and Michael Callahan, Yahoo senior vice president and general counsel, were told their company was a giant technologically and financially but “morally you are Pygmies.”

And the US Congressional hearing made clear that it was time for Yahoo to atone for identifying to Chinese authorities simply upon their request the identities of dissidents who used Yahoo servers in China to send out their e-mails. The best way to do that, the two were told at the hearing of the US House Committee on Foreign affairs, would be a generous settlement in a lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court brought by relatives of two of the dissidents.

All Yahoo would agree to in the hearing was to be “open” to a settlement but within a week the deed was done. No details of how much money will change hands although Yahoo did say it was paying the legal fees for the families bringing the lawsuit and it was apologizing for its actions, and it was establishing a “human rights fund to provide humanitarian and legal aid to online dissidents.”

US State of California representative Tom Lantos, whose “pygmy” sound bite got big play across America, still is not enamored by Yahoo even it if did at least settle the lawsuit. “It took a tongue-lashing from Congress before these high-technology titans did the right thing and coughed up some concrete assistance for the family of a journalist whom Yahoo had helped send to jail. What a disgrace,” he said.

The families of journalists Wang Xiaoning and Shi-Tao, both serving 10-year sentences, were suing Yahoo in federal court under an 18th century US law that allows foreigners to sue in the US for violation of universally accepted human rights standards. The suit was originally brought by Wang’s family, accusing Yahoo of complicity for Wang’s alleged torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, and also seeking to hold Yahoo responsible for giving up the names of other anonymous Chinese users, and Shi’s family later joined it.

Yang said after the settlement, “After meeting with the families, it was clear to me what we had to do to make things right for them, for Yahoo, and for the future. We are committed to making sure our actions match our values around the world.”

The human rights fund may come in handy if what the World Organization for Human Rights – the group that helped the Chinese bring their lawsuit – says is true about the number of Chinese dissidents behind bars.  It said only a few names of those imprisoned have been released but “it is suspected that hundreds more have been similarly affected.” - Philip Stone November 14, 2007

Keywords:journalists in China

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