Yahoo! speaks out on Chinese censorship

Yahoo! has called for greater understanding of the difficulties companies face in operating in China, particularly regarding the thorny issue of censorship.

Earlier this year, rival search engine Google came under fire for launching search and news websites in China that censor material deemed objectionable to authorities there.

And Yahoo! has also faced severe criticism from human rights activists for handing over internet records which led to the arrest and conviction of a journalist in China.

A statement released today from Yahoo! addressed the difficulties businesses have balancing "what they believe with laws they must obey".

Yahoo! also spoke of the sometimes "disturbing" implications of complying with the wishes of the Chinese government but tempered this by saying it believes it is better that companies such as Google and Yahoo! are present than not.

Yahoo! said: "All US and international firms operating in China face the same dilemma of complying with laws that lack transparency and that can have disturbing consequences inconsistent with our own beliefs.

"These issues are larger than one company or even one industry. Companies that choose to enter the market in the future will face the same struggle to effectively balance what they believe with laws they must obey."

The statement added: "Our goal is to help drive the discussion between US companies that face these challenges, in appealing to our government to do all it can to help us continue providing services we know benefit China's citizens and to do so in a way consistent with our beliefs and values."

Earlier this month US politicians attacked Cisco, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! for failing to attend a meeting on internet censorship.