US Congress blasts Yahoo over cyberdissident row

Yahoo's CEO Jerry Yang and executive vice president Michael Callahan faced a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing in Washington yesterday over providing misleading information to Congress last year as part of an investigation into the company's role in disclosing former journalist and cyberdissident Shi Tao's identity to Chinese authorities.

Shi Tao was arrested in November 2004 after sending a government internal document delivered to his publication to several foreign Web sites. The document was issued as a warning to journalists of possible social destabilisation and risks posed by returning dissidents on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, and requested that they not report on the occasion.

The Congress Committee chairman, Congressman Tom Lantos, described Yahoo's involvement in the Tao case and their cooperation with the Chinese government in providing the details of other suspects as "a despicable practice" and said that covering it up when "Congress seeks an explanation is a serious offence", in a statement released to Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF).

Lantos asked Yang and Callahan yesterday to account for the company's "spineless and irresponsible actions", in an opening statement at the hearing.

The chairman and his fellow representatives from the Committee also asked Yang and Callahan apologise to Shi Tao's mother, who was at the hearing.

"I want to personally apologise to them for what they and their families are going through," said Yang.

Yahoo China provided China's Department of State Security in 2004 with information about Shi Tao's IP address, e-mail account and log-on history upon request -- information which eventually led to his arrest and imprisonment.

Tao is now serving a 10-year sentence after being convicted at trial of "illegally divulging state secrets abroad" by Chinese authorities.

Yahoo was called to answer before Congress in February last year over its participation in the case and several others like it.

Yang and Callahan were called back by the Committee for yesterday's hearing after it was found that they provided false information in a sworn statement regarding their compliance with Chinese authorities in Tao's case.

At a separate hearing last year, Callahan told the Committee: "Yahoo does not have day to day operational control over the Yahoo China division."

Callahan continued: "When Yahoo China in Beijing was required to provide information about the user, who we later learned was Shi Tao, we had no information about the nature of the investigation."

"We condemn punishment of any activity internationally recognised as free expression, whether that punishment takes place in China or anywhere else in the world. We have made our views clearly known to the Chinese government," he said.

According to RSF, it was later revealed that China's Department of State Security sent Yahoo a document dated 22 April 2004, stating that it was seeking information about a user suspected of "illegally providing state secrets to foreign institutions".

Speaking at yesterday's hearing Yahoo's Callahan said: "The fundamental point remains unchanged: we did not know the case related to a journalist ... We did not know this was a political case."

He issued an apology last week for failing to tell Congress that Yahoo knew more about the case than was initially suggested at the first hearing, where he claimed that Yahoo could not even be sure that all of its users in China were providing their real names and details, or why the authorities would need access to this information.

"Months after I testified before two House subcommittees on Yahoo's approach to business in China, I realised Yahoo had additional information about a 2004 order issued by the Chinese government seeking information about a Yahoo China user," he said in a statement.

He went on to say that he neglected to alert the Committee when this information came to light, and claimed that it had led to a "misunderstanding" between Yahoo and Congress.

Committee chairman Lantos said: "Mr Callahan has not been accused of perjury" and that he "may not have known the relevant facts personally".

RSF claim that at least four other cyberdissidents have been imprisoned in China as a result of Yahoo's cooperation with security authorities.

In its world press freedom index released last month, RSF ranked China 163 out 169 countries surveyed. The survey ranks countries according to factors such as censorship, threats to journalists and incidences of government repression of the media.