Chinese media workers unite!

In case you missed it, there was a flurry in the China-news blogosphere (about a week ago). As Rebecca MacKinnon summarizes:

“The Taiwanese-run iPod subcontractor Foxconn sued two Chinese journalists for libel after they reported about abusive conditions at Foxconn’s iPod factory in Shenzhen… Foxconn got Shenzhen court to freeze all the personal assets of a journalist and editor from the Shanghai-based First Financial Daily and was seeking over $3 million in damages from them as individuals – not against their newspaper. ”

Then fortunately, a flurry of activity from blogs to portals to newspapers (I’m summarizing very crassly here) led Foxconn to drop the charges to a symbolic $1.

Roland Soong: “The most important outcome is that the Chinese media workers learned how they can band together and create an unstoppable tide of public opinion.  And what new causes will come to their attention tomorrow?”

For more details, goto the respective posts from RConversation, ESWN.