New York-based Human Rights Watch, in a letter to the chief executive officer of Yahoo Inc., said the Chinese government's restriction of the Internet should not be aided by a company committed to free online expression.
"If it implements the pledge, Yahoo will become an agent of Chinese law enforcement," Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch's executive director, said Friday. "It will switch from being an information gateway to an information gatekeeper."
He said Human Rights Watch wrote Yahoo CEO Terry Semel on July 30 asking for a meeting to express "deep concern" and discuss free expression issues in China. Yahoo has not yet responded, Roth said.
Telephone and e-mail messages left with Yahoo spokeswoman Diana Lee at the portal's Sunnyvale, Calif., headquarters on Friday were not immediately returned. The company's Beijing office confirmed last month that it signed the pledge.
The "Public Pledge on Self-discipline for China Internet Industry" has attracted more than 300 signatories since its launch March 16, according to the Internet Society of China, which organized it.
The pledge identifies its main aims as promotion of Internet use, prevention of online crime, fostering healthy industry competition, and avoiding intellectual property violations.
Other clauses, though, speak to China's tight control over information and the government's extreme sensitivity to criticism or political challenges. New regulations on Internet publishing took effect Aug. 1 "to promote the healthy development of Internet publications."
Those who sign the pledge must refrain from "producing, posting or disseminating pernicious information that may jeopardize state security and disrupt social stability." The prohibition also covers information that breaks laws and spreads "superstition and obscenity." Members must remove material deemed offensive or face expulsion from the group.
Signers also pledge to monitor content of foreign-based Web sites and block those containing unspecified harmful information.
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