NUJ advises boycott of ‘unethical’ Yahoo!
Donnacha DeLong | 02.06.2006 23:16 | Globalisation | Repression | Technology
The National Union of Journalists is advising its 40,000 members to boycott all Yahoo! products and services in protest at its repeated collusion with the Chinese authorities.
In a letter to Yahoo! Europe's vice president Dominique Vidal, the union's new media council said that NUJ members have been unanimous in their condemnation of Yahoo!.
The search portal provided information to Chinese authorities that helped identify and prosecute several journalists and pro-democracy writers.
Shi Tao was sentenced to 10 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.
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," said Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the NUJ.
"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."
Members are advised to contact the new media council for advice on alternative email, group forum and portal services.
The search portal provided information to Chinese authorities that helped identify and prosecute several journalists and pro-democracy writers.
Shi Tao was sentenced to 10 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.
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," said Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the NUJ.
"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."
Members are advised to contact the new media council for advice on alternative email, group forum and portal services.
Donnacha DeLong
Homepage:
http://www.nuj.org.uk
Comments
Hide the following 5 comments
The stinking hypocrisy of the NUJ
03.06.2006 02:55
Mass Media so-called journalists are self-serving scum of the very worst kind, and it's about time they dropped the hypocrisy, and ended the pretence of left-leaning unions. Instead, the NUJ should drop its mask, and publically embrace the extreme right wing racist and pro-war services that its members provide.
It's as if nazi concentration guards belonged to a union that spent all of its time complaining about Human Rights abuses in other nations. A Mass Media journalist in the UK has a choice. Be a good decent moral Human, or continue working for the BBC, Guardian, ITN, Sun, Telegraph, etc, etc.
twilight
Why
03.06.2006 09:15
Surely a job swap scheme should be on the cards !
confused
Ignorant sectarians
03.06.2006 13:08
The NUJ represents Indymedia people as well as Sun journalists. It's a UNION, just because it's not your favoured isolationist, elitist minority vanguard organisation doesn't make it hypocritical. Unions represent their members, usually against their bosses and editors, they do not represent the companies their members work for. The NUJ has done more campaiging against media monopolies and human rights issues in the media than any of the ranters above are likely to have done.
Donnacha DeLong
e-mail:
donnacha.delong@tiscali.co.uk
Homepage:
http://irrepresible.info
Support an Union that is being Internationalist
03.06.2006 21:04
The NUJ may not always see the bigger picture with changing information structure, and maybe a craft union at times, but at least they do more positive in a hour than Twightlight's constant individualist negativity over ages... a choice of what you do with your time I suppose
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NUJ's internationalism
04.06.2006 02:01
Donnacha DeLong
e-mail:
donnacha.delong@tiscali.co.uk
Homepage:
http://irrepresible.info