Yahoo on Tuesday settled a lawsuit filed in the United States by two mainland Chinese writers who were imprisoned after the technology company handed over their private account information to Chinese law enforcement authorities. 
Terms of the settlement weren't disclosed. But a source at Yahoo said the company has been "working with the families, and we're working with them to provide them with financial, humanitarian and legal assistance."
Yahoo has also agreed to establish a global human rights fund to provide "humanitarian relief" to support dissidents and their families. The source said that details still have to be worked out.
"After meeting with the families, it was clear to me what we had to do to make this right for them, for Yahoo! and for the future," said Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang in a statement. "Yahoo! was founded on the idea that the free exchange of information can fundamentally change how people lead their lives, conduct their business and interact with their governments."
"We are committed to making sure our actions match our values around the world. That's why we are also working to establish a Human Rights Fund to provide humanitarian and legal aid to dissidents who have been imprisoned for expressing their views online," he said.
Yahoo also agreed in a court filing to pay the attorneys' fees for the plaintiffs.
Yahoo said nothing, however, about the future provision of e-mail services to users in China. Its competitor Google has decided not to host e-mail or blogging services for users within the jurisdiction of mainland Chinese authorities.
The settlement comes after lawmakers blasted Yang and Yahoo's top lawyer Michael Callahan last week in a congressional hearing over how Yahoo has handled the entire chain of events surrounding the arrests.
"It took a tongue-lashing from Congress before these high-tech titans did the right thing and coughed up some concrete assistance for the family of a journalist whom Yahoo had helped to send to jail," said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos in a statement issued Tuesday. "In my view, today's settlement is long overdue."
The two writers are engineer Wang Xiaoning and business journalist Shi Tao. They're both still currently serving 10 year prison terms for their online activities. Wang wrote tracts in e-mail messages calling for democratic reforms and posted them to a Yahoo group, and Shi e-mailed a Communist party communique about press coverage of some returning Chinese pro-democracy activists to an overseas non-profit.
The Chinese authorities jailed Wang for "incitement to subvert state power," and Shi was imprisoned for leaking state secrets.
The writers' lawyer Morton Sklar of the World Organization for Human Rights hinted on Tuesday that one of the terms of the settlement was that Yahoo would continue to lobby the Chinese government to release his clients. He said that the terms covered many of the issues discussed in the hearing.
"There is certainly the need to do something to get the individuals out of prison as soon as possible," he said.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey said that the settlement doesn't obviate the need for his proposed bill, which would among other things make it illegal for US tech companies to divulge identifying user information to repressive regimes, and allow affected parties to bring civil suits against such companies in the United States.
"As a nation, we have a responsibility to continue to push for the release of these human rights leaders and pass the Global Online
Freedom Act to prevent this egregious human rights abuse from happening to others," said Smith in a statement. "Much like the Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act, my legislation will make certain that US companies are not compelled to comply with local Secret Police or any other unlawful policies when operating in foreign markets."
Yahoo is working "pro-actively" with lawmakers on the bill, said the
Yahoo source. They added that Yahoo supports the "overall objectives"
of the bill, but that there are still provisions in it that would effectively ban the company from doing business in China.
Lantos said in his statement Tuesday that as far as he was concerned, the settlement isn't the end of the issue.
“Yahoo! Inc. and other U.S.-based Internet companies need to work harder to ensure that they resist any attempts by authoritarian regimes to make them complicit in cracking down on free speech – otherwise, they simply should not do business in those markets," he said.
Yahoo is working with other US technology companies, academics and human-rights groups to craft a "code of conduct" to protect freedom of expression online.
Separately, the government-run China Daily reported Monday that Chinese officials are trying to track all the journalists "allowed" to work in China during the Olympic Games next year. The story says that the Chinese government has already compiled a database of 8,000 "overseas reporters," and is currently building another one that will contain information on an additional 20,000 foreign reporters who are expected to be in China during the games. The story says that the databases are being built so that the authorities can crack down on "bogus reporters."
(Photo of Wang Xiaoning's wife, Yu Ling: Jenna Wortham, Wired News, 4/19/07)
See Also:
- Webcast of the November 6 House Foreign Affairs Committee is available here.
- Yahoo General Counsel: We'll Consider Settling Yu Ling Lawsuit
- Yahoo Chief Executives: We Didn't Lie
- Yahoo Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing Members Blast Yang, Callahan
- Relatives of Chinese Dissidents Look on as Yahoo Execs Endure ...
- Yahoo in China Hearing Begins
- Bush Administration Might Weigh in on Yahoo Human Rights Case
