NPR: Companies Seek to Promote Free Speech, Yet Still Do Business in China

Companies Seek to Promote Free Speech, Yet Still Do Business in China

In the past several months, Internet and telecommunications companies like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft have taken some pretty intense heat for their interactions with governments in totalitarian countries. Critics say the companies have turned over information about users' activities that allowed these governments to track down -- and jail -- dissidents or have cooperated too much in government censorship.

So I read with interest Rebecca MacKinnon's post at her blog, RConversation, about her involvement with a process to establish "a set of global principles on free speech and privacy protection for internet and telecoms companies."

The list of companies who have joined the process is the real story -- it includes Vodafone and the three above, who "admitted publicly" to taking part earlier this year. (Interestingly, MacKinnon notes, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is not involved, despite its launch of MySpace in China, where it also has been criticized for too much censorship.)

MacKinnon, a former CNN journalist who is now an assistant professor at Hong Kong University's Journalism and Media Studies Center, writes that the purpose of the principles is not to "impose Western values" on China. Instead, it's to seek a way to help companies in all countries conduct their business "while doing all they can to protect their users' interests against government encroachment globally."

MacKinnon writes that she wishes Yahoo! would apologize to the families of Chinese journalist Shi Tao and other dissidents jailed after the company turned over information about their Internet activities to the government. She says it's unlikely, but she notes that Jerry Yang, one of the company's founders and the new CEO, discussed some of the measures that Yahoo! is taking to protect free speech and privacy at a shareholders meeting earlier this month.

11:37 AM ET | 06-27-2007 | permalink

Send a Comment

Comments are reviewed and edited by NPR prior to display. All comments will be read, but not all will be posted.

NPR reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its Web site or in any medium now known or unknown the e-mails and letters that we receive. We may edit them for clarity or brevity and identify authors by name and location. For additional information, please consult our Terms of Use.

E-mail this Page

Recipient's e-mail address:	» Up to twelve addresses, separated by commas.
Your e-mail address:
Your name:
Personal message (optional, 600 characters max):
Your NPR member station:	» List of local stations (PDF)
Are you a member of your local NPR station?	Yes No
Would you like to receive information from your local NPR member station? (see NPR's privacy policy)	Yes No
May we contact you with information about NPR programming and services? (see NPR's privacy policy)	Yes No

(Information collected by NPR will be used solely for internal NPR or NPR member station purposes and only if you selected 'yes' above. See NPR's privacy policy for more information.)

Tom Regan

Blogger

About Us

This year's election cycle has been one of the most exciting in memory. At the NPR News Blog we'll do our best to bring you interesting, informative -- and controversial -- stories from our own reporters and bloggers, as well as the rest of the best of the Internet and blogosphere. And we hope you'll let us know what you think as well.

Want to learn more? Be sure to read our Frequently Asked Questions and our discussion guidelines.