Blog Post Week #12

Yahoo and Chinese Journalists
The recent events between Yahoo and Chinese journalists have been a big discussion in two of my classes. In my introduction to public relations, we are discussing conflict management and how Yahoo dealt with this conflict. And in my organizational communication class, we have been discussing cultural differences when companies from one country (example the United States) go into another country (example China). These companies going into other countries have to abide by those country’s rules and customs of their culture. So basically what happened was that two Chinese journalists were arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison and according to some, it is all Yahoo’s fault. The journalists were told by the Chinese government not to report on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square. The journalists forwarded this information to human rights activists. The Chinese government pressured Yahoo to turn over information about the journalists that sent out that information. Yahoo complied with the government and the men were then put into prison. Yahoo has just settled with the families of the journalists in an amount not released. I guess it is compensation for these families. It raises great questions as to weather this was ethical on behalf of Yahoo. What do you think, should they have done what they have done?

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