JSK fellowship won't return Yahoo gift

The John S. Knight Fellowship at Stanford University says it has no plans to return a $1 million grant from Yahoo, despite a spirited debate over the company's record on freedom of expression. But the director of the fellowship said the program is considering holding a forum to engage Yahoo and other media companies about operating in repressive countries.

Yahoo intended the donation to 'demonstrate our support for freedom of expression,' said a spokeswoman, but it has instead revived attention to the company's controversial practices in China, where it has turned over user information to Chinese authorities. The Sunnyvale company has supplied information to Chinese law enforcement that led to the arrests of two journalists and two other Chinese dissidents, according to Human Rights Watch.

'We are giving some protective color to Yahoo and helping it to atone,' Peter Sussman, a freelance journalist and author in Berkeley who was a Knight fellow in 1978, wrote in an e-mail Tuesday to other alums on a discussion list. 'To look a gift horse in the mouth, atonement comes cheap these days.'

Announced in late September, the Yahoo money over the next decade will annually bring one international journalist to Stanford from countries where the news media is restricted. Recipients, chosen by the directors of the Knight Fellowship, will be designated as both a Knight fellow and Yahoo international fellow.

Jim Bettinger, the program's director, said he understands the concerns many alums have expressed but remains firm about accepting the donation.

'I don't think it'd be possible to read this as us endorsing what Yahoo did in China,' he said. 'We thought it was appropriate that Yahoo, one of the world's largest news providers, step up and take responsibility for improving the craft of journalism.'

Click on the headline to read the full story in the San Jose Mercury News.