Free speech group blasts Yah-Hu!

The Guardian reports on alleged proof that Yahoo! squealed on Chinese dissidents:

Reporters Without Borders said the draft email produced yesterday was used at a 2003 trial to sentence a dissident, Jiang Lijun, 39, to four years in prison for subversive activities.

Such revelations looked likely to intensify the misgivings about doing business in China for Congress which is already deeply mistrustful of Beijing.

Reporters Without Borders, an international advocacy organization for journalists, called on Yahoo! to remove its email servers from China, stop hiding behind their Chinese partner Alibaba (though how Alibaba is mixed into this we're not quite sure ... anyone know?), and release a list of reporters, writers, and cyberdissidents whose emails they are helping track. However, they made no comment about Yahoo! China's policy of hiring hot girls to promote their products and services.

Li Zhi, Shi Tao, and Zhang Lijun are the three writers/journalists who were convicted of "subversion" based on evidence that came from, in part, Yahoo!. The new RSF report is related to Li Zhi's 2003 case; at that time he was convicted then of "subversion" and sentenced to four years in prison.

And what did Yahoo! have to say in its own defense? The internet giant claims that Li's access code might not have been disclosed by Yahoo!, by one of his collaborators, who has been speculated to be an government informer.

Yahoo!'s spokeswoman also clarified the point about who we mean when we point the finger at Yahoo!:

Osako also stressed that any sort of disclosure would not have been made by Yahoo! Hong Kong. "Yahoo! Hong Kong has never provided user information to the [Chinese] government," she said. "That's a very important fact. What was named in the verdict is an entity called Yahoo! Holdings which is different to Yahoo! Hong Kong." When asked if it were possible that Jiang LiJun's information had been provided by Yahoo! China, the spokeswoman replied, "Yes". She added: "Let us make clear that we condemn punishment of any activity internationally recognized as free expression, whether that punishment takes place in China or anywhere else in the world."

Shanghaiist isn't about to take sides about this, but Johnny Cash is; during a recent seance, Cash told Shanghaiist:

Well, there's things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin' everywhere you go,
But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You'll never see me wear a suit of white.