Yahoo! involvement revealed in 2003 sentencing of jailed cyber-dissident
(Feb. 10, 2006)SOURCE: Reporters sans frontières (RSF), Paris
**Updates IFEX alerts on the Li Zhi case of 11 December and 25 September 2003; for further information on Yahoo!'s involvement in the arrest of Shi Tao, see alert of 8 September 2005; for information on Internet companies and freedom of expression in repressive states, see alert of 10 January 2006**
(RSF/IFEX) - On 8 February 2006, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned the US firm Yahoo! for handing over data on one of its users in China, which enabled the authorities there to send him to prison for eight years, the second such case that has come to light in recent months.
It called on Yahoo! to supply a list of all cyber-dissidents about whom it has provided data, beginning with 81 people in China for whose release the worldwide press freedom organization is currently campaigning.
RSF said it had discovered that Yahoo! customer and cyber-dissident Li Zhi had been given his eight-year prison sentence in December 2003 based on electronic records provided by Yahoo!. "How many more cases are we going to find?" it asked.
"We were sure the case of Shi Tao, who was jailed for 10 years last April on the basis of Yahoo!-supplied data, was not the only one. Now we know Yahoo! works regularly and efficiently with the Chinese police.
"The firm says it simply responds to requests from the authorities for data without ever knowing what it will be used for. But this argument no longer holds water. Yahoo! certainly knew it was helping to arrest political dissidents and journalists, not just ordinary criminals. The company must answer for what it is doing at the US congressional hearing set for February 15."
On 5 February, the foreign-based news website Boxun.com posted the plea of cyber-dissident Li's lawyer, Zhang Sizhi, which had been submitted at an appeal court hearing in February 2004 (Link). Zhang said his client, who used the e-mail address "libertywg@yahoo.com.cn" and the username "lizhi34100", had been sentenced on the basis of data handed over by Yahoo! Hong Kong in a report dated 1 August 2003.
Li, a 35-year-old ex-civil servant from the southwestern province of Dazhou, was sentenced on 10 December 2003 to eight years in prison for "inciting subversion." He had been arrested the previous August after he criticized, in online discussion groups and articles, the corruption of local officials.
Local sources said Yahoo! Hong Kong's cooperation with the police was also mentioned in the court's verdict on Li.
The US House of Representatives Committee on International Relations will hold a hearing on 15 February about the ethical responsibilities of Internet firms. Yahoo! has been invited to attend.
Forty-nine cyber-dissidents and 32 journalists are in prison in China for posting on the Internet articles critical of the authorities.
(boxun.com)
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