The company which makes
Apple's
iPod media players has
persuaded a court to freeze the bank accounts of two journalists who alleged
that it mistreated workers in China, it was claimed yesterday.
Legal observers have criticised the manufacturer,
Foxconn,
for attacking the journalists directly, rather than suing the newspaper which
published the reports.
Property, cars and bank accounts belonging to a reporter and an editor on the
China
Business News were frozen by the courts in mid-July after they were sued by
Foxconn.
But the journalists chose not to make a public announcement about this while
negotiations continued, the newspaper reported yesterday.
A local subsidiary of the manufacturer, Hongfujin Precision Industry
Shenzhen, is seeking $3.8m in damages from the journalists, a sum equivalent to
approximately 800 years' salary for each of them, the newspaper reported.
Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, is a Taiwan-based contract
electronics manufacturer which builds notebook PCs and other consumer
electronics products for many well-known brand name vendors, including Apple.
Foxconn makes
Sony's
PlayStation 2 console,
Hewlett Packard PCs
and some products in Apple's iPod series. The company reported revenue of $28bn
last year.
Foxconn appears to have made no public statement about the legal action, and
did not respond to
vnunet.com's
request for comment.
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