Yahoo!'s executive vice president and general counsel Michael Callahan has issued a statement apologising over an incident which occurred in China in 2004.The search engine provider has been widely criticised for its alleged part in the arrest of Chinese journalist Shi Tao, who is now serving a ten-year prison sentence in the country for divulging state secrets.
According to US lawmakers, Mr Tao was only arrested by Beijing police because Yahoo! had provided them with his IP address, log-on history, email account and the contents of his emails.
Mr Callahan has apologised for failing to tell US officials in a hearing last year about the company's cooperation with a request made by the Chinese government for user information concerning the journalist.
His statement expressed his deep regret over supplying incorrect information during the hearings.
He stated: "Months after I testified before two House subcommittees on Yahoo!'s approach to business in China, I realised Yahoo! had additional information about a 2004 order issued by the Chinese government seeking information about a Yahoo! China user," the Financial Times reports.
The fact that he neglected to alert the committee of this "new information" led to a deeply regrettable misunderstanding, he added.
Mr Callahan is due to appear at a congressional hearing next week and is expected to testify that a Yahoo! lawyer in Asia failed to brief him on the order because the lawyer believed it to be insignificant.
