As previously blogged, Chinese iPod manufacturer Foxconn sued two journalists who alleged that Foxconn was guilty of serious labor violations. (Apple investigated the claims and found them mostly false.)

Foxconn sued the journalists for an insane amount of money, and had their assets frozen. Predictably, a public backlash ensued. UCLA's Asia Media now reports that Foxconn has dropped their suit from 30 million yuan to one yuan, but still asserts they were defamed.

The company has been required by the government to allow its workers to unionize.  

Between now and September 9, you can get a free iPod from KeyBank.

To get a free 1GB black iPod nano, open a checking account on or before September 9, and have a direct deposit transaction or obtain a KeyBank credit card by October 31, 2006.  

On June 15, China Business News reporter Wang You and his editor Weng Bao published a story alleging labor violations at an iPod factory owned and operated by Foxconn. The story was picked up worldwide, and Apple quickly launched an investigation and published a persuasive report indicating that although they found some relatively minor violations which were being addressed, the reports were generally false.

The Shanghai Daily reported today that Foxconn has sued Wang and Weng for combined damages of US $3.7 million, and petitioned Shenzhen's Intermediate People's Court--a city court--to freeze Wang and Weng's personal assets, including apartments, a car and bank accounts.

This isn't the first time Foxconn has made the harsh move of suing individual journalists, and the move will likely not earn them any points in China's journalism community.

(For what it's worth, it didn't earn any points with FreeiPodGuy. It will be interesting to see if Apple has any comment.)