News

Apple Asked to Help Journalists in Foxconn Story

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 at 1:30 PM - by

Reporters Without Borders sent a letter to Apple Computer CEO, Steve Jobs, asking for help with the lawsuit Foxconn brought against the reporter and editor of the article exposing workplace violations at the Longhua factory that makes iPods. Foxconn filed a suit against reporter Wang You and editor Weng Bao of the China Business News for their story that ultimately led to Apple's own investigation of the factory.

Foxconn has successfully managed to obtain a court order freezing both journalist's assets, and is now suing them for "smearing its reputation." The company is asking for 30 million yuan in damages.

The letter says, in part, "We believe than all Wang and Weng did was report the facts and we condemn Foxconn's reaction. We therefore ask you to intercede on behalf of these two journalists so that their assets are unfrozen and the lawsuit is dropped."

Apple's investigation found that employees were working longer than acceptable hours, and that in some cases Foxconn was not in compliance with the code of ethics all Apple subcontractors are expected to honor.

Representatives from Apple were unavailable for comment.

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Biff said:

member since 08 Apr 2004 with 1479 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Aug 29, 2006 4:09 pm

Ouch. Poor Apple. They're gonna have to consider this one very carefully!

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2088 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Aug 29, 2006 5:44 pm

I agree, Biff, plus, I expect that few outside of China understand their laws. They may not have anything like the US's First Amendment.

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