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Losing a champion of human rights

February 11, 2008 in AIUSA | Tags: BBC News, NPR, Shi Tao, VOA, Wang Xiaoning, Tom Lantos | Leave a comment

I checked the headlines of the BBC News this morning as usual and was shocked to hear Congressman Tom Lantos has passed away. He was the greatest ally in Washington for human rights organizations. AIUSA worked with him on numerous occasions. Whenever I was asked to spread the word about a Dear Colleague letter being circulated in Congress written on behalf of a prisoner of conscience, Lantos was always one of the two representatives who initiated the letter.

Most recently, he scolded Yahoo executives over their negligence of handling the company’s involvement in the imprisonment of journalist Shi Tao in China during a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing last November. A few days after the hearing, Yahoo settled a lawsuit with the family members of Shi Tao and imprisoned pro-democracy writer Wang Xiaoning. There is no doubt in my mind that the hearing played a major role in the outcome of the lawsuit.

Although I only learned about Rep. Lantos through the media or emails circulated from AIUSA, my impression of him is a person who gets it when it comes down to human rights. Most of his colleagues would put other priorities in front of human rights but not Lantos. Losing a go-to person like him feels like losing the greatest captain in the worst storm at sea.

What to expect at Yahoo’s upcoming shareholder meeting

May 10, 2007 in AIUSA, CSR, Internet censorship | Tags: Wang Xiaoning | Leave a comment

Executive Director of the World Organization for Human Rights USA, Morton Sklar who filed the lawsuit against Yahoo! on behalf of Wang Xiaoning was interviewed on the Human Rights Channel of internet based Etopia News. The interview is hosted by Brightcove, an online video broadcasting service but it contains only audio. The part of the interview I found most interesting is that some Yahoo! shareholders contacted Sklar’s organization since the lawsuit went to press and the potential of these shareholders to bring up the issue at the Yahoo! shareholder meeting this coming June.

AIUSA confronted Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft at those companies’ shareholder meetings last year. At the time, AIUSA appeared to be a lone voice at the meetings. And today, the New York City Pension Fund was the lone voice at the Google shareholder meeting with its proposal for setting up policies that protect freedom of access to the internet in response to internet censorship in many countries around the world. The proposal was quickly voted down. But the New York City Comptroller is not done yet. Similar proposals have been filed for Yahoo! and Microsoft shareholder meetings.

I believe that definite change can happen when more shareholders come together for the cause but it will also take courage to vote opposite the wishes of the company executives to force them to change.

Wife of prisoner in China sued Yahoo

April 21, 2007 in CSR, HRIC, Internet censorship | Tags: NPR, Radio Free Asia, Wang Xiaoning, Wired Magazine | Leave a comment

A law suit filed in San Francisco against Yahoo! on behalf of Wang Xiaoning who was jailed in China for 10 years due to his online activities was made public recently. Wang’s case was first reported by Human Rights in China almost a year ago. Chinese court document included evidence provided by Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd identifying Wang’s Yahoo! email address and Yahoo! Group in which he distributed his political writings.

Wang’s wife, Yu Ling came to the US over a month ago to look for help filing the law suit. When I first heard about her trip, I was wondering anyone would step up to take it on. Fortunately in the land of law suits, the official filing came in less than two months after Yu’s first step into Washington, DC. Now that the suit is filed, Yu went back to China and she expected the worst because being outspoken never ends well in China.