Hong Kong investigators said yesterday there was not enough evidence to show Yahoo Hong Kong provided private information that helped convict a Chinese reporter accused of leaking state secrets.
The case raised questions about whether Internet firms should cooperate with governments that deny freedom of speech and frequently crack down on journalists.
Yahoo Hong Kong was accused of helping Chinese authorities by Hong Kong lawmaker Albert Ho (
But the privacy commissioner's office said there was insufficient evidence to prove that Yahoo Hong Kong gave "personal data" to Chinese authorities.
The commissioner also said in a statement it was Yahoo's branch in China -- owned by Yahoo Hong Kong -- that supplied information about Shi, so the act fell outside of Hong Kong's jurisdiction.
"This is a case where data was collected in mainland China about a mainland Chinese resident," Privacy Commissioner Roderick Woo said.
California-based Yahoo has said before that it was required under Chinese law to provide information requested by Chinese authorities. The privacy commissioner's report said the company provided Internet protocol log-in information and "certain e-mail content," which wasn't described.
Shi, a former writer for the financial publication Contemporary Business News, was jailed under state secrecy laws for allegedly providing state secrets to foreigners. His conviction stemmed from an e-mail he sent containing his notes on a government circular that spelled out restrictions on the media.
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