National Union of Journalists to boycott Yahoo!

Yahoo! has been criticized all over the world for helping the Chinese government by allegedly providing information about journalists leading to their arrests.

Now, they are directly being targeted by the union representing journalists in the UK and Ireland. The National Union of Journalists has called on its 40,000 members to boycott all Yahoo! products and services as a protest to company’s non-democratic policies in the Chinese market.

The organization said it sent a letter on Friday to Dominique Vidal, Yahoo Europe’s vice president expressing their anger and informing them of this protest movement.

Jemima Kiss, chairman of the NUJ new media council wrote in the letter: “The NUJ regards Yahoo’s actions as a completely unacceptable endorsement of the Chinese authorities.”

Yahoo! has released a statement on this issue: “Let us make clear that we condemn punishment of any activity internationally recognized as free expression, whether that punishment takes place in China or anywhere else in the world.”

However, it is unlikely that this statement is going to make any of the protestors happy. It is all about money in the end and China is of course the second largest internet market in the world right now.