Ipod sweatshops’ paper sued

Back in June, we pointed out claims of sweatshop-style labor conditions in some of the Chinese factories where Apple’s ubiquitous iPods are assembled. As we mentioned at the time, such charges aren’t entirely surprising for a large, multinational corporation. But they seemed somewhat hypocritical for a company that built a reputation (and a tech empire) on doing thi

To its credit, Apple launched a 10-week investigation into conditions at its subcontractors’ plants. Its final report found no evidence of forced labor, but it did cite “unnecessarily complex” pension programs and mentioned instances in which employees worked in excess of the maximum number of hours per week. Apple said yesterday that it is “working behind the scenes” to fix the problem. 

Now, a subsidiary of Taiwan-based Foxconn, one of Apple’s subcontractors, is using the opportunity to sue the Chinese paper that reported the original claims of sweatshop labor for defamation. Well, not just the paper, but the reporter and editor of the China Business News who produced the story–to the tune of $3.7 million. Their personal assets have been seized, including their apartments, cars, and bank accounts. The Committee to Protect Journalists has issued a statement condemning the motion by the Hongfujin Precision Industry Co., in what looks like a step backward for press freedom in China.    

Hongfujin–and Foxconn–have apparently taken a page out of the Barry Bonds playbook: When all else fails, blame the media.  

Update

Mark one down for China’s bloggers. Foxconn has slashed its defamation suit against reporter Wang You and editor Weng Bao to 1 yuan, or about 12 cents. The company caved after the journalists blogged about the case, drawing millions of readers and thousands of messages of support. There’s already talk about whether Apple pressured its subcontractor to end the suit and the PR disaster that came with it.

It’s a promising development. But, as Time‘s Simon Elegant notes in a Web exclusive piece about the case, “[w]ithin hours of Foxconn’s retreat, reports emerged that Singapore Straits Times journalist Ching Cheong, who had reportedly been trying to collect information on the late, disgraced Communist Party official Zhao Ziyang, had been jailed for five years on charges of spying for Taiwan.” And just last week, New York Times researcher Zhao Yan was sentenced to three years in prison for trumped-up charges of fraud. There’s still much work to be done. Indeed, China remains the world leader in jailing journalists.

We’ll keep an eye on this case, and others like it that are sure to spring up as more and more Western businesses head to China–and as bloggers make headway in relatively closed media environments.