Internet repression: Reporters Without Borders' plea falls on deaf ears

Reporters Without Borders wrote at the beginning of December appealing to 14 companies in the Internet sector to put pressure on the Chinese government to lift censorship of the Internet and to release jailed cyberdissidents. To date, not one of the chief executive officers of the companies contacted have deigned to reply. The international press freedom organisation therefore calls on the media to challenge the CEOs listed below to explain their failure to respond Reporters Without Borders chose 14 European, North American, Japanese and South Korean firms with business links to China in the Internet sector. Some of them even directly involved with Chinese government repression, by selling them surveillance equipment. Others simply closed their eyes to what was going on because of their business interests. All of them should feel responsible, it said, for the plight of China's embattled Internet-users. The organisation also publishes a monthly Internet Repression report that lists violations of freedom of expression on the Net in China. List of CEOs contacted: - John Chambers, Cisco - Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft (copy to William H. Gates, founder) - Craig R. Barrett, Intel - Charles Dehelly, Thomson - Frank A. Dunn, Nortel - Carleton S. Fiorina, Hewlett-Packard - Guerrino De Luca, Logitech (copy to Daniel Borel, founder) - Lawrence J.Ellison, Oracle - Hajime Sasaki, NEC (board chairman) - Kun-Hee Lee, Samsung - Scott G. McNelly, Sun Microsystems - Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM - Terry Semel, Yahoo ! (copy to Jerry Yang, founder) - Serge Tchuruk, Alcatel