Yahoo! In The Hot Seat With Free Press Advocates

Reporters Without Borders is accusing Yahoo! of providing information to the Chinese government to procure the conviction of a Hong Kong journalist for leaking state secrets to foreign websites. On April 30, Chinese journalist Shi Tao, of the daily business newspaper Dangdai Shang Bao, was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison after the text of an email showed he had provided foreign websites the content of a message from the government warning journalists about coverage of the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF-Reporters Sans Frontiers), after combing the text of the verdict in the case, says that Yahoo! Holdings Hong Kong provided Chinese authorities with the information to identify and convict Shi Tao. RSF has been vigilant in calling out search engines for ethical quandaries related to their desire to tap the lucrative Chinese market. And Yahoo!'s alleged infringement, they say, is a serious ethical issue, a compromise the search company was willing to forfeit to do business there. "Yahoo! appears to be willing to go to any lengths to gain shares of the Chinese market... It is one thing to turn a blind eye to the Chinese government's abuses and it is quite another thing to collaborate," said the