Yahoo's Apology

Yahoo Officials Defend Company's Role in Arrest of Chinese JournalistWASHINGTON (AP) -- Two top Yahoo Inc. officials on Tuesday defended their company's role in the jailing of a Chinese journalist but ran into withering criticism from lawmakers who accused them of complicity with an oppressive communist regime.
Yahoo gave the Chinese government information about Shi Tao's online activities, and he was jailed for 10 years.
"While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-California, said angrily after hearing from the two Yahoo executives.
He angrily urged Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang and General Counsel Michael Callahan to apologize to journalist Shi Tao's mother, who was sitting directly behind them.
Shi Tao was sent to jail for 10 years for engaging in pro-democracy efforts deemed subversive after Yahoo turned over information about his online activities requested by Chinese authorities.
Yang and Callahan turned around from the witness table and bowed from their seats to Shi's mother, Gao Qinsheng, who bowed in return and then began to weep.