Yahoo! defends its record on human rights in China

The American internet company Yahoo! has defended its record on human rights in China, and said it was asking the US government to challenge censorship in the communist country.

In remarks that damped down a potential shareholder revolt over the company's policies in China, the Yahoo! founder, Jerry Yang, said it was working with human rights groups to draw up some principles on freedom of expression, and had been actively lobbying the US government for help in fighting censorship.

But in order to operate in China, Yahoo! has agreed to block dissident websites from appearing in its results when users search the web. It has been heavily criticised, too, for turning over users' details to the Chinese authorities, who have used the information to prosecute and imprison dissidents.

The company persuaded shareholders to reject proposals that would have moved to change those policies. A resolution from the New York City Comptroller's Office, on behalf of the New York City Pension Funds, was rejected by 71 per cent of shareholders. A proposal to create a human rights committee to report on the impact of Yahoo!'s policies was also defeated.

In a presentation that drew a round of applause from shareholders, Mr Yang said the private sector alone could not change the attitudes of repressive regimes, but insisted: "Yahoo! is committed to protecting human rights globally."

Yahoo!'s lively annual meeting was also notable for one of this year's biggest revolts over executive pay, as one-third of shareholders withheld their support for the re-election of members of the audit committee.

In 2006, Terry Semel, Yahoo!'s chief executive, received a cash and shares package worth between $72m (£36.5m) and $107m, depending on how share options are measured. That made him one of the best-paid executives in America, despite Yahoo!'s lacklustre share price.

Mr Semel, who has been chief executive since 2001, said he still had enough "fire in his belly" to lead Yahoo!, and promised that Panama - a new technology for placing adverts next to Yahoo! users' search queries - was improving profits.

But Eric Jackson, who said he represented a group of current and former Yahoo! employees who own 2.1 million shares, hit back: "I am surprised you didn't apologise for the last three years of performance."