PI Calls for Yahoo! Boycott over Chinese Co-operation

07/09/2005

Privacy International

Media release

HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP CALLS FOR YAHOO BOYCOTT

7th September 2005 - for immediate release


Human rights watchdog Privacy International has called for a worldwide consumer boycott of Yahoo, which has today been implicated in the imprisonment of a Chinese journalist.

According to documents released by Reporters Without Borders, Shi Tao was jailed for ten years after Yahoo had provided the Chinese government with details of an email he had sent to Western media. See http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=14884

Privacy International's director, Simon Davies, said the actions of Yahoo were reprehensible. "This is a disreputable episode. Western companies are increasingly cutting deals with the Chinese government to serve their shareholders' interests at the expense of ethical governance".

"A boycott would send a clear message to Yahoo shareholders and to other companies who cheerfully sacrifice human rights in return for a cut of the Chinese market".

"Until China recognises the basis of due legal process and fundamental rights Western companies have no moral foundation to reap profits from its population."

"Yahoo and other technology companies employ a flimsy moral argument of pragmatism to justify such actions. The public should see these arguments for the sham that they are."

Related:
Freedom of Expression Home Page
PHR2004 - People's Republic of China
Silenced - China