14 DAY TRIAL // After the investigation from Apple revealed that the conditions in the Foxconn factory were far from those depicted in the original reports about it, the Taiwan-based information technology manufacturer has decided to seek some retribution from reporters.
However, they have not gone after the writers of The Sunday Mail Report, but rather after two local journalists. One of them, Wang You, wrote a report on June 15, claiming that most employees in Foxconn's Shenzhen factory worked more than 12 hours a day and earned only about 1,000 yuan a month. They also had to stand for long hours at their jobs and were not allowed to talk to others, the report alleged. Besides Wang You, the company is also going after his editor, Weng Bao.
A Chinese court has already frozen the personal assets of both men, including apartments, a car and bank accounts. Also Foxconn is suing them for 30 million yuan. The case is the biggest of its kind on the Chinese mainland in terms of the sums that are being asked for compensation.
So far The China Business News yesterday said that it "stands firmly behind its journalists and will bear all possible consequences in this case." The newspaper has also condemned the company's decision to freeze the assets of individual journalists.