Yahoo Turns to Washington for Help on China

By REUTERS - The New York Times
11 May 2006

Yahoo Inc. said on Thursday it was seeking the U.S. government's help in urging China to allow more media freedom, after reports linking information it gave to Chinese authorities with the jailing of a dissident.

Last month, the Internet media company was cited in a Chinese court decision to jail an Internet writer for 10 years for subversion in 2003 -- the fourth such case to surface implicating Yahoo.

Yahoo Chairman and Chief Executive Terry Semel said it had no choice but to comply with local laws and did not have the power to change Chinese policy.

``We tried, and we are going to continue to try as an industry to have our government help us,'' he told New York media executives at a Newhouse School event.

He said that closing down Yahoo's operations in China would not help boost free speech.

``In my mind one of the equalizers to lack of information happens to be the Internet,'' he said.

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