Skype, the fast-growing internet communications company that belongs to Ebay, has admitted that its partner in China has censored text messages.

It defends this complianceas the only way to do business in China. Niklas Zennström, Skype's chief executive, responded in a Financial Times interview, to accusations that the company had censored text messages containing words like "Falun Gong", a banned movement, and "Dalai Lama". He said Tom Online, its joint venture partner in China, was complying with local law. "Tom had implemented a text filter, which is what everyone else in that market is doing," said Mr Zennström. "Those are the regulations."

He said compliance with Chinese censorship was no different from obeying rules in western countries. China, along with the US and Germany, is one of Skype's three biggest markets in terms of active users of its free telephony service.

Entering a controversy that has seen Yahoo, Google and Microsoft criticised for working with China's censorship rules, Mr Zennström said: "I may like or not like the laws and regulations to operate businesses in the UK or Germany or the US, but if I do business there I choose to comply with those laws and regulations."

He said Tom-Skype had not put users at risk. Yahoo has been lambasted for providing information that helped the Chinese jail two dissidents. "Those things are in no way jeopardising the privacy or the security of any of the users," said Mr Zennström.