Recently, Yahoo!'s Hong Kong operation turned over emails which helped convict journalist Shi Tao. He was jailed and sentenced to 10 years in prison for 'illegally sending state secrets abroad' — the 'secret' was information about how newspapers could cover the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
All the major search engines have given in to Chinese demands to throttle liberty in exchange for access to the Chinese market. Google removed news listings from publications critical of Chinese policy. Microsoft blocked users from using the terms 'freedom' and 'democracy.'
It's one thing to engage in self-censorship. It's an entirely different level to actively turn over information which leads to jailing of citizens for exercising basic freedom of press. I hope Yahoo! is working behind the scenes to see that Mr. Tao does not spend the next decade in prison for sending an email.
--MR
