Yahoo! chiefs blasted by congress

The House of Representatives foreign affairs committee has severely criticised Yahoo! for giving the Chinese government information which led to the arrest of journalist Shi Tao.

Furthermore, Yahoo! then went on to lie to congress about its actions during the affair, the committee said. Yahoo! chief executive Jerry Yang and general counsel Michael Callahan were both berated by the chairman of the committee, California Democrat Representative Tom Lantos.

He criticised Yahoo! for not making more efforts to aid the family of Shi Tao, who has been sentenced to ten years in prison for forwarding information about China's ban on reporting the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Rep Lantos said: "Why is it such a complicated issue to help a family whose breadwinner is in prison because of Yahoo's cooperation?

"While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies." The two executives were then made to apologise to Shi Tao's mother, who was present at the hearing.

Yahoo! makes apology

An apology has been issued by a Yahoo! executive on the company's failure to inform US authorities about China's request for information on an internet user.

The information resulted in the imprisonment of the Chinese journalist Shi Tao, who has been sentenced to a decade behind bars. Executive vice president of the company, Michael Callahan, admitted to a House Foreign Relations panel last year that Yahoo! gave information to the Chinese government. Later, after learning why the request was made and the nature of the information in question, Mr Callahan did not tell US lawmakers.

He said: "I neglected to directly alert the committee of this new information, and that oversight led to a misunderstanding that I deeply regret and have apologized to the committee for creating." Next week Mr Callahan and Jerry Yang, Yahoo!'s chief executive are to appear before the House committee to answer more questions over the affair.