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August 30, 2006

legal

iPod factory working condition reporters sued; Jobs asked to step in

Posted Aug. 30, ’06, 1:15 PM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Legal

Factory WorkersIt would have been nice if Apple’s investigation of the allegations of labor conditions at the Foxconn iPod assembly Plant in China had been the end of the matter, but I suppose that’s wishful thinking. A new drama has unfolded after two Chinese reporters penned a piece saying that iPod assembly line workers were inadequately paid for overtime. Foxconn subsidiary Hongfujin retaliated by suing the reporters for defamation, demanding €3 million in damages, and having a court freeze their assets. Nice.

In response to that action, journalist advocacy group Reporters Without Borders published an open letter to Steve Jobs, asking him to step in:

We know that Apple is already aware of this case. After the London-based Daily Mail newspaper ran a story about it on 11 June, your company reacted by investigating conditions at Foxconn’s plants and discovered that your supplier had indeed violated several aspects of your code of conduct, including those concerning the length of the working week and days off.
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.
Cases like these are very tricky in China, where the state exerts a strong control media outlets and “freedom of the press” is just an expression. But the response of freezing all of the reporters’ assets (including their apartments and cars) seems disproportionate, even should the charges of defamation be upheld. Regardless, the ball is now in Steve Jobs’s court.


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