WANThe president of the World Editors Forum told a conference of industry leaders that internet technology companies have an obligation to protect the human rights of their users in oppressive regimes.

While bestowing jailed journalist Shi Tao with the WAN Golden Pen of Freedom Award, George Brock, also Saturday editor of the Times, attacked the actions of Yahoo! in alerting and assisting the Chinese authorities in his capture.

Mr Shi is serving a 10-year sentence on charges of "leaking state secrets" for writing an email about media restrictions in the run-up to the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 2004.

Yahoo! gave state Chinese authorities information that allowed them to trace the message to a computer he used at the newspaper where he worked, Dangdai Shang Bao (Contemporary Business News).

"Mr Shi's email was picked up by Chinese authorities with the assistance of Yahoo," said Mr Brock.

"Yahoo has argued that it must comply with the laws in the countries where it operates, and was therefore compelled to co-operate with state security authorities.

"While those who do business around the globe must often deal with non-democratic governments, we believe that new media companies that provide more and more of the means for global communications, have a special responsibility.

"They have an obligation to ensure that the basic human rights of their users will be protected, and they must carefully guard against becoming accomplices in repression."

His mother Gao Qinsheng, who made an impassioned speech about her son's detention, accepted the award:

 

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