Reporters Without Borders secretary general Robert Ménard has
written to Google CEO Eric Schmidt and one of Google's founders, Sergey
Brin, about a defamation lawsuit that the Indian construction company
Gremach brought against Google's Indian subsidiary, Google India Private
Ltd, in February 2008.

As a result of the action, a Bombay high court ordered Google's subsidiary
on 15 August to reveal the identity of a blogger who used the pseudonym
"Toxic Writer" to post comment's criticising Gremach on Google's blog
platform, http://www.blogger.com/ .

Indian law governing the use of personal data makes no provision for the
parties concerned to oppose disclosure. As far as the Indian authorities
are concerned, Google India Private Ltd is subject to local law and must
name the person who posted the disputed content.

"Under the Indian law concerning cyber-crime, IT Act 2000, a company is
presumed responsible for the content posted on the websites it hosts unless
it can demonstrate its innocence. Google has just two options - either
prove that its local subsidiary was not aware of the offending content at
the time it was posted, or that it was posted in violation of the warnings
it had issued," Reporters Without Borders said. "We urge Google's
executives not to comply with the local law and to appeal against the
court's decision."

Ménard's letter, dated 21 August, refers to the precedent of Chinese
journalist Shi Tao and the US company Yahoo!, whose compliance with a
Chinese government request in 2005 to identify one of its clients resulted
in Shi being sentenced to 10 years in prison.

"You must be aware of the ensuing public relations disaster for Yahoo! and
the apology that your counterpart and rival, Jerry Yang, had to give to the
US Congress after it held him responsible for his client's imprisonment,"
the letter says. "Seize the opportunity you are being given to demonstrate
transparency by defying the Indian court's request in the name of the
international standards that protect free expression."

Ménard points out that the Global Online Freedom Act (GOFA) proposed by US
representative Christopher Smith would protect US companies operating in
foreign countries with authoritarian governments that could ask them to
reveal their clients' personal data. "The GOFA would require all such
requests to be submitted to the US government, thereby extricating them
from a delicate situation."

Ménard adds: "We remind you that article 19 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly,
says: 'Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this
right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek,
receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers'."

Read the letter:
http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/080821._Letter_to_E._Schmidt.pdf

For further information on the Shi Tao case, see:
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/93206