According to Reuters, the British press is resisting moves by Yahoo that have led to the jailing of pro-democracy activists in China.
The union representing journalists in Ireland and the UK called on its 40,000 members to boycott all Yahoo! products and services to protest the internet company’s reported actions in China.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said it sent a letter on Friday to Dominique Vidal, Yahoo! Europe’s vice president, denouncing the company for allegedly providing information to Chinese authorities about journalists. The union also said it would stop using all Yahoo!-operated services.
The company has been accused by the NUJ and other journalism groups of providing records that led to an eight-year prison term for Li Zhi for discussing pro-democracy issues in a web forum and of helping identify Shi Tao, who was sentenced to prison for 10 years for forwarding a government email to the foreign press.
In related news, Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin acknowledged Tuesday the company has compromised its principles by accommodating Chinese censorship demands.
Well, I’m biased but, to me it seems that if you’re going to do business somewhere, you have to obey the local rules – even if the rules run counter to your belief system. They could choose to boycott China, but that would not do anyone any good.