The British National Union of Journalists has urged its 40,000 members to boycott all Yahoo products
in protest against the search engine company's "repeated
collusion" with the Chinese authorities.
In a letter to the
company, the NUJ new media council this week blamed Yahoo for
co-operation with the Chinese authorities which it said has led to the
prosecution of several journalists and pro-democracy writers.
It
said: "Information provided by Yahoo has been critical in identifying
and prosecuting Chinese journalists and pro-democracy writers.
"Shi
Tao was sentenced to ten years in prison for forwarding a government
email to the foreign press. The authorities had tried to warn
journalists of the ‘danger' posed by the return of dissidents on the
15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
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"Jiang Lijun
was sentenced to four years in November 2003 after Yahoo! provided
information that helped identify him. He was sentenced for writing
articles that called the Chinese government ‘autocratic' and said that
he favoured a western-style democracy.
"Li Zhi was sentenced to
eight years for discussing pro-democracy issues in a web forum and for
emailing pro-democracy campaigners.
"The Chinese government has
an atrocious record of censorship and free expression and it is
essential that the rest of the world publicly objects to and campaigns
against this repressive regime.
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"The NUJ regards Yahoo!'s actions
as a completely unacceptable endorsement of the Chinese authorities. As
a result, the NUJ will be cancelling all Yahoo!-operated services and
advising all members to boycott Yahoo! until the company changes its
irresponsible and unethical policy."
Yahoo
has previously responded to similar criticism by saying that it complys
with local laws in the countries where it operates.
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