Yahoo Boss Thinks Compliance is Best

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HANGZHOU, China (AFP) - Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) chief Jerry Yang said his company was complying with local laws when information on an Internet user was passed to Chinese police in a move leading to the jailing of a mainland journalist.

Yang, speaking at the Alibaba China Internet Summit here, also said he wasn't happy with the 10-year sentence to journalist Shi Tao, jailed for passing on a government censorship order through his Yahoo e-mail account.

"We did not know what they wanted information for, we are not told what they look for, if they give us the proper documentation in a court order we give them things that satisfy local laws," Yang told journalists

"I don't like the outcome of what happened with this thing, we get a lot of these orders, but we have to comply with the law and that's what we need to do."

Shi, 37, was convicted in April for "revealing state secrets," by using his email account to post on the Internet a government order barring Chinese media from marking the 15th anniversary of the brutal June 1989 crackdown on democracy activists in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Last week, Yahoo's actions were revealed in the court's verdict, copies of which were posted on overseas Chinese websites.