62 year old Guangzhou man is New York City's Sad Panda
China: Nine nations in one?
Electrolist: Berlin 8-bit retroblaster tonight
Interview: Rich Medina funks up the Shelter
Thanksgiving turkey conundrum? The solution: Taobao
Two reporters, Weng Bao (翁宝) and Wang You (王佑) of a leading Chinese financial newspaper 《第一财经日报》have had their financial assets frozen in connection with a defamation lawsuit filed by Foxconn (富士康), the company that runs the controversial iPod factories in China. It started with this:
On June 15, China Business News published a story by Wang You "Foxconn workers: The machine punishes you to stand 12 hours," describing the alleged harsh working conditions and low pay in the Taiwan-funded company.On July 4, Foxconn filed suit in Shenzen, demanding a whopping 30 million RMB in compensation from the two journalists (and we feel especially bad for the guy who has to cough up 20 million!)
By July 10, the assets of the journalists -- including bank accounts, cars, and real estate, had been frozen. Naturally, this has provoked something of an outrage among those who believe that this company (and its Taiwanese boss) are strong arming the press into submission. Legal and media experts across China have said that the lawsuit is in fact a non-starter, since the lawsuit ought to be directed against the newspaper -- individual journalists cannot be singled out. The Chinese media has come out strongly against this lawsuit, condemning the "chilling effect" on the media that such actions create.
In response to this, the two reporters have created blogs to chronicle the events and their feelings and reactions to everything happening to them. You can find Wang You's blog here and Weng Bao's blog here.
Photo of Weng Bao writing in his blog from Sina.com
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
post to facebook
while I normally come down on the side of journalists in such cases, the motives of the reports in question seem less than pure. The investigation into the claims of poor working conditions proved groundless, and the company is therefore within in rights to pursue legal recourse. To libel a company or individual is not acceptable. Anyone who has worked in China media knows there is an absence of ethics among reporters. They routinely accept bribes and revel in their role as "kings without crowns." Those that are honest and professional are normally rewarded with long prison sentences.
Yepp, we should sympathize for these two journalists. But also should figure out what is the true story behind the news.
Media mind:
Libeling is unacceptable, though there is a difference between libel and journalists making mistakes. What the truth is should be determined b y a court of a law; the problem is that there has been no hearing yet and no one knows when there will be. It should be in the near future, but no specifics have been released in the media yet. I don't know if this is standard legal process or not, but why can they freeze the assets of these two journalists before anything has been determined? Is this because their bank accounts, cars, and real estate might be part of the "bribe," and therefore count as evidence?
If so, then it a court injunction might make sense, otherwise, it seems to go against the innocent until proven guilty thing. Also, i wonder what the point of asking 20 million from one guy and 10 from the other is; they obviously can't pay that much, so perhaps if the allegations are correct they will just have to pay everything that they do own? Everything being done here is legal, but again, regardless of the guilt or innocence of the two reporters, there would seem to be a chilling effect produced by the undue severity of the punishment asked for.
That Taiwanese boss was in violation of labor laws, but not to the extent of "slave" conditions. The tactic he is using is more in line with the West, where corporations may use an avalanche of lawsuits against a media outlet for force them to recant. The idea is that the media company won't want a prolonged, expensive court fight (or at least the media outlet's investors won't) and the risk of being wrong gives the media outlet a long term black eye.
Couple that strategy with the vulnerability of chinese courts to bribery and the probability that this Taiwanese boss and his investors are richer than both reporters and their company combined.
media mind:
"Those that are honest and professional are normally rewarded with long prison sentences."
As you have said above, so you believe that a brand new punishment should be created to push those reporters, absent of ethics which you have confirmed, into bankruptcy , once any benefit of big corporation was violated bacause of those reporters.
In addition, no reporter of mainland China do not routinely accept bribes so they deserve that punishment.
At last, without those so called "kings without crowns", big corporations will enjoy a better enviroment of no corruption. Then, economy will grow faster and people can get higher income.in a word,everyone are happy.
What? the workers? Who cares, they are born to endure all of that.
"Hey, be careful with your words. It's defamaion so you must seek bribery" you must agree with that, media mind.
Oh, someone wants to wave the "blood flag".
"In addition, no reporter of mainland China do not routinely accept bribes so they deserve that punishment."
Seems like a contradictory statement.
"big corporations will enjoy a better enviroment of no corruption. Then, economy will grow faster and people can get higher income.in a word,everyone are happy."
Corporations are a major source of corruption and everyone except corporate officers loses. MNCs must be beaten into humility.