If facing off with Carl Icahn isn’t enough, Yahoo! management is now busy performing reputational triage for socially conscious investors.
The same company whose corporate policies have been blamed for exposing political dissidents Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning in China has recently launched a new Business & Human Rights Program. According to the company’s Deputy General Counsel Michael Samway, the initiative is grounded “in core values centered on open access to information, free expression, and the belief that engagement, even in countries that restrict expression and access, can have a positive impact on the lives of citizens.” The purpose of the program, the company says, is to promote access to the Internet and limit unfair restriction. This is certainly an admirable goal but the company has been doing business in China and other politically sensitive countries for several years now. Why has it waited so long to do this?
China was almost certainly the catalyst behind this initiative. We know this because in February of 2006 the U.S. House of Representatives held a rather contentious hearing in which executives from Google, Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Yahoo! were grilled for seven-hours about their compliance with censorship laws in China and elsewhere. At the time, the company’s then chief counsel testified that when Yahoo! turned over information about Shi to Chinese authorities, “we had no information about the nature of the investigation.” The statement later turned out to be false.
One lawmaker was especially harsh on the company’s role in the matter. “While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies,” said Tom Lantos, who chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee until his passing on February 11, 2008. Lantos was a Holocaust survivor who fled Nazi persecution in Hungary.
Since then, the company has taken some steps to correct the situation. Yahoo! co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier in the year urging the Bush Administration to use its diplomatic influence to actively pursue the release of Chinese dissidents imprisoned for exercising their right of free expression. An important step, but is it enough? Contact Mr. Samway at (408) 349-3300 or visit their blog to let the company hear your views.
0 Comments.