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NUJ calls for boycott against Yahoo!

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JoePolitix

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Okay cyber-lefties are you going to follow the NUJ's call for a boycott of Yahoo! due to its collaborating with the Chinese regime in suppressing dissidents (i.e shut down your yahoo acounts, not use the service provide, withdraw from discussion lists, spread the word etc)?

Via the NUJ website...

NUJ advises boycott of ‘unethical’ Yahoo!

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.
 
don't tell me that. (Jesus sweeps, and well he might.) Are you telling me I have to change my e-mail address I have had for years. DOH! this will create so much work for me. :mad:
 
TAE said:
A link always helps:

"Yahoo Chairman and Chief Executive Terry Semel told investors at the company's annual shareholder meeting last week that the company had no choice but to comply with local laws and did not have the power to change Chinese policy alone."

That's a tough one.
Click to expand...

Yeah right, "just obeying lawful orders" is not an excuse since Nuremberg. Yahoo! have helped the Chinese authorities identify and prosecute dissident journalists some of whom have recieved as much as ten years imprisionment. I'm more concerned about their liberty than that of yahoo!'s shareholders.
 
What does Nuremberg have to do with this?

The only alternative for Yahoo is not to do business in China at all. If you think that we should all completely boycott China (no one buys from or sells to them) fair enough.
 
TAE said:
What does Nuremberg have to do with this?

The only alternative for Yahoo is not to do business in China at all. If you think that we should all completely boycott China (no one buys from or sells to them) fair enough.
Click to expand...

No I think that people should support the union representing British journalists call to boycott yahoo because they are directly implicated in the imprisonment of human rights campiagners and independent jounalists in China.

What could be more reasonable than that?
 
So what should Yahoo have done in your opinion?

I'm not saying that they were right to give out those names, but the only alternative I could see would be to stop trading in china all together.
 
TAE said:
So what should Yahoo have done in your opinion?

I'm not saying that they were right to give out those names, but the only alternative I could see would be to stop trading in china all together.
Click to expand...

If Yahoo! are obliged by Chinese law to give the details of dissidents to the state (which I'm not sure is actually the case) then yes I don't think they should trade with China because such trade isn't in the interest of the Chinese people because it helps to sustain the deniel of their freedom and human rights.
 
hmm difficult one, I counter by saying is this move by NUJ precedented, seems quite radical for hte NUJ, could it be driven by anti-chinese sentiment then protection of journalist.
 
lostexpectation said:
hmm difficult one, I counter by saying is this move by NUJ precedented, seems quite radical for hte NUJ, could it be driven by anti-chinese sentiment then protection of journalist.
Click to expand...

Surely it would be more anti-Chinese if the NUJ turned a blind eye to the jailing and persecution of their brothers and sisters in China?
 
lostexpectation said:
what other mega companies are the NUJ boycotting?
Click to expand...

Given that one of principles that the NUJ is to campiagn for media freedom why is calling for the boycott of an American transnational that helps to deny it in China anything to do with be anti-Chinese?

Jeremy Dear is also active in Hands Off Venezuela, Justice for Colombia and other campiagns. He's an internationalist and a socialist. To suggest that he and the leadership of the NUJ are guilty of anti-Chinese racism is way of the mark.
 
ok ok their priority is defending journalist above all else, it still seems a unprecedented and humungous step!

if they're job is protect journalism why don't the boycott Murdoch corp?

(is) NUJ there to protect journalist not journalism? (he says without sarcasm)
 
Ok then, I've put my yahoo address into 'forward to' mode for a while, which means I won't be logging in to yahoo and hence will not be getting their adverts.
 
TAE said:
Ok then, I've put my yahoo address into 'forward to' mode for a while, which means I won't be logging in to yahoo and hence will not be getting their adverts.
Click to expand...

Excellent. I love it when a plan comes togeather :)
 
Hmmm...will the NUJ also be calling on it's members to boycott MSN, Google and other Western internet companies who also do business in China?

It's not like this is recent news either - Yahoo and MSN have both been forced to do this in China over the last couple of years, so is there any reason for this to be happening now as opposed to earlier?
 
its not just about 'doing business' and filtering content tho, its about active collaboration with the government to track down dissidents - which google havent done (as yet anyway), and which isnt legally required for a company not based in China
 
I remember reading that MSN have done tho, and there aren't any calls to boycott them...

And all Western companies in China have to be incorporated as a Chinese company - i.e. you can't just have an 'office' there, you have to actually be a Chinese corporate entity where there is a legal requirement to cooperate if the govt asks you to.

Which is why when this all blew up last year the mealy mouthed erply from Yahoo!NA was 'Yahoo! China is a separate commerical entity and is required to conform to Chinese laws.' or something along those lines.
 
kyser_soze said:
I remember reading that MSN have done tho, and there aren't any calls to boycott them...

And all Western companies in China have to be incorporated as a Chinese company - i.e. you can't just have an 'office' there, you have to actually be a Chinese corporate entity where there is a legal requirement to cooperate if the govt asks you to.

Which is why when this all blew up last year the mealy mouthed erply from Yahoo!NA was 'Yahoo! China is a separate commerical entity and is required to conform to Chinese laws.' or something along those lines.
Click to expand...


Thats what I said. Sort of.
 
lostexpectation said:
are there any standard raising journo orgs/unions?
Click to expand...

The NUJ tries. See www.londonfreelance.org/nuj-code.html

Many years ago, when you needed a union card to work on any paper, the process for expelling someone who broke the Code actually worked to enforce it. Then the Tories made it (the "closed shop") illegal... :mad:

The union does have a policy that it will support any member who refuses to handle copy on the grounds that it is, for example, racist. Unfortunately the Daily Excess has always been able to find someone to put the shit through to the printers :(

There's also the Campaign for Press & Broadcasting Freedom www.cpbf.org
 
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