Yahoo ! implicated in third cyberdissident trial

US company’s collaboration with Chinese courts highlighted in Jiang Lijun case Reporters Without Borders has obtained a copy of the verdict in the case of Jiang Lijun, sentenced to four years in prison in November 2003 for his online pro-democracy articles, showing that Yahoo ! helped Chinese police to identify him. "Little by little we are piecing together the evidence for what we have long suspected, that Yahoo ! is implicated in the arrest of most of the people that we have been defending,” the press freedom organisation said. ......................... “Last week we went to the headquarters of the company to urge them to end this collaboration. We called on them to remove their email servers from China, because it is the only way to avoid taking part in the current crackdown against journalists and democrats.” ......................... The organisation’s activists previously approached Yahoo ! staff leaving its offices to show them the tapes. They then tried to meet the firm’s executives, who at first refused to see them and threatened to call the police. They finally agreed to a meeting, on 10 April, but this encounter did not produce any concrete results. Yahoo's Response, from InformationWeek: "While we absolutely believe companies have a responsibility to identify appropriate practices in each market in which they do business, we also think there is a vital role for government-to-government discussion of the larger issues involved," said Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osaka.