“Today the BBC has announced that a new TV programme called ‘Apple’s Broken Promises’ will be airing shortly on the net after it’s been broadcast on BBC TV,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“It’s not going to be a very Apple friendly programme to be sure,” Purcher reports. “Whether any part of the BBC’s special programme will borrow from China Labor Watch’s report titled ‘Two Years of Broken Promises,’ is unknown at this time.”
Purcher reports, “The BBC is scheduled to air this special programme this coming Thursday.”
Full article here.
Apple is the most valuable brand on the planet, making products that everyone wants – but how are its workers treated when the world isn’t looking? Panorama goes undercover in China to show what life is like for the workers making the iPhone 6. And it’s not just the factories. Reporter Richard Bilton travels to Indonesia to find children working in some of the most dangerous mines in the world. But is the tin they dig out by hand finding its way into Apple’s products?
MacDailyNews Take: Wonderful.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
If they called out Apple by showing that other companies were doing better, I’d be OK with a show like that. Doubt it’ll be anything other than headline viewer grabbing 1-sided crap. Call out all the companies using their suppliers, or call out China for not having worker protections in place. But just calling out Apple is just tripe journalism.
In reality workers that make products for Apple are the best cared for among anyone else.
Of course, “honest journalism” and “journalistic principles” will never let those tabloidish “respectable media” to report that.
Obviously, Apple still has a work to do, but considering how much better it does than, say, Samsung (BBC’s biggest advertisement sponsor for every on-line or off-line market besides the UK, where advertisement is prohibited by-laws)…
How they can blame Apple for issues that far down the value chain is beyond me.
Indonesian tin mines?!?
Almost every other manufacturer of anything uses that same tin. You can blame them all, or better yet, you can blame the company that owns the mine.
so you use a sliding scale for questions of ethics or legality?
Oh, I won’t miss this POS…in fact, I’m going to watch it on my APPLE TV.
Funny that a British program is doing an “expose” on Apple when Britain doesn’t even have a tech company half as good as even Google. Ubuntu is British, and how many people even use that? Is this jealousy on their part. Maybe the CBC should make a program on how Apple ripped off BlackBerry and killed them off.
Being better than Google, Netflix or Amazon isn’t hard to do Arm Holdings and Dyson certainly are..
I thought Ubuntu was South African.
Just looked it up, Owner Shuttleworth is SA, but the parent developing company is Canonical, UK. In spirit, it’s SA.
Wayne, you are, I take it, familiar with ARM, the people who’s chip architecture Apple uses for their entire iOS range?
Where do you think ARM are based?
I’ll give you a clue; it isn’t America, or the Far East.
And can you guess 3 companies that founded ARM?
I give you a clue, 2 companies are US based.
A: Acorn, Apple, VLSI
Good, will be a good watch….the BBC tend to be as accurate as you can hope. Just because something is unfriendly does not mean it is not true. Sorry Apple fans but sometimes the truth hurts.
Thank you for your input, Mr. Unregistered Troll.
What is wrong with opening up the debate or do you just like Apple happyland where absolutely nothing can go wrong. The program is going to look into the methods used by Apple in particular how the iPhone 6 is made….http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04vs348.
If you can learn to crawl you might be in time to get out under the rock you are hiding under.
just, shut up…okay? Thanks.
Feeling a bit sensitive today?
I’m a delicate flower, thank you for your heartfelt concern.
Awwwww didums.
Nope.
It’s the iPhone 6, today. But before it was an iPhone 5, and 4 etc. This is an ongoing debate. It seems it’s only point is to bruise Apple and slow down sales, for altruistic reasons. However, in a post Ann Rand society, nobody cares.
Look, people do care, but Apple is not your tree to bark up. Frankly China will do to it’s workers, whatever they want, and they would rather screw you, on the backs of their citizens, by providing cheap labor, so that the Western economy can’t live without them.
Even the BBC makes mistakes.. Why, this very journalist in fact:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8291288/BBC-stalker-programme-tracked-wrong-man.html
I suspect we’re in for a another boatload of Mike Daisey style half-truths and outright fantasies… Hey the NYT won a Pulitzer on the back of that kind of garbage.
Not “even”; BBC is pro-spying, anti-freedom government tool that brainwashes viewers with propaganda on many subjects.
It’s very much the UK version of China’s CCTV – and on top of that, unlike their Chinese counterpart, they force us to pay a TV license.
I’ve noticed that even the “good” news organizations tend to have at least one weird biases (and this usually a financial cause). With the BBC, that bias is pro-Microsoft and anti-Apple. BBC News is great overall, particularly on foreign policy issues. But whenever they cover anything Apple or Microsoft, this reputable news organization transforms into biased bag of peanuts and turds. I’ve seen this happen many times over the years.
Which begs the question: If a restaurant chain purchases bread from a bakery that allegedly mistreats its bakers, does this mean that the restaurant chain should also be accused? If my brother beats his children, am I guilty by extension? If an ancestor from 200 years ago kept slaves, does this make me guilty of slavery?
This in a nutshell is the accusation against Apple.
At what point is Apple directly to blame for working conditions of its suppliers? It is known that Apple has worked hard to enforce proper working standards of its suppliers in foreign countries. But I would argue that there are limits to a company’s liability.
In many cases, a company like Apple has limited options for the suppliers and contract manufacturers it can choose, given the scale of demand for its products. If Apple chose to place all manufacturing and sourcing directly under its control, e.g., making all contract suppliers’ employees Apple employees, perhaps the accusations would have greater merit. But it is simply impractical to do so, economically and realistically.
TV shows like the one produced by BBC can make easy potshots at a company like Apple. But the reality is much different. Until the Chinese government enforces appropriate working standards for its citizens, there is little that can be done. I am sure the BBC knows this, but their aim is the cut down low-hanging fruit, and in this case, the TV show will aim the smear a profitable company.
Nobody likes to see humans being exploited. But if Apple were to decide not to use Pegatron or other large Asian suppliers for contract manufacturing, where could Apple turn? I doubt that this is a question being raised by the BBC, nor answered.
At a previous software company at which I worked, I had to respond to RFPs from the Counties of San Francisco and Los Angeles. Both RFPs had extensive sections mandating the my former employer, a five-year old company, requiring proof that the company had never engaged in Civil War-era slavery. We had to go to extreme lengths to answer detailed questions and provide evidence. I did so knowing the exercise was simply absurd.
When I see TV shows like the one the BBC is producing, I have similar feelings. We decry human exploitation. Yet, we expect our products, our clothing and our food to be cheap. To do so, companies around the world have to produce goods in impoverished countries and pay extremely low wages. So the same activists who demand social justice often contradict themselves by having the same expectations for prices and availability as everyone else. You can pay workers a fair wage. Or you can have affordable products. But you cannot have both.
Until the Chinese government stops corruption and institutionalized maltreatment of its people, this problem will continue. It started long before Apple began sending manufacturing abroad, and it will continue long afterward.
Actually, that does not “beg the question”. Please look up the term before you use it incorrectly. 🙂
Years ago BBC was one of my go to news channels. They’ve simply turned into a tabloid journalistic channel many times filled with unreliable reporting. More like a cross between MSNBC and HLN.Yes, they still have a couple of good journalists but not like the good old days.
The name of the damned thing is , “Apple’s Broken Promises” Exactly what promises were made that were broken?
Apple promised to continue to audit and look into unfair working conditions, they never made promises that they would be able to eradicate 100% of these issues. This story is obviously a biased attack on Apple.
This is what happens when you take a stand – alone – on an issue, everyone and their brother tries to tear apart what you’re doing. All the while the companies that aren’t doing ANYTHING get a pass. For christ’s sake, Samsung is KILLING their workers. THEIR workers.
These aren’t even Apple’s factories OR employees.
Well, I sure hope the reporters from the BBC got their Apple fill at this year’s WWDC. It is likely to be their last for quite some time.
I hope Apple sue these desperate hit piece for defamation!
@Jubei…See my comments above. The program has yet to be aired you div so why say sue them when you have no idea what is to be said! What is the problem with investigating? The BBC has no anti-apple agenda and in fact reports openly about all the good things that go on…a bit of truth always helps to balance things a little.
No, a bit of truth can be twisted to say anything you want it to say. It remains to be seen if the *whole* truth will be revealed, where Apple is better than most any other big tech company. Still work to be done? Of course. Worth singling out Apple? No way.
Definitely not…Apple are a secretive company who detest talking to the media unless it us on its own terns so definitely good to shake things a little to put in the spotlight as they have done with many other companies in the past.
Thank you Feather brain. It’s fairly obvious you harbor ill will towards Apple. You’re not fooling anyone.
EVERY company is secretive to a certain extent to protect it’s legal interests. Apple has every right to keep it’s R&D and product information secret to prevent others from copying them. In PARTICULAR Apple more than most companies having more at stake and being an industry leader. You imply it’s something criminal.
Pete Pete Pete….Its fairly obvious you do not get my point and are just being a tad over-sensitive. Of course every company has to be secret to keep their R&D away from everyone else. What I am talking about is that Apple craft and stage media events and any notion that you dare challenge Apple is the open could mean you get cut off…
“…that you dare challenge Apple is the open could mean you get cut off…” or something.
Feather certainly has a way with unintelligible speech combinations. His other serial word killer nickname I would suggest is probably the “The Logorrhea Mangler.”
@peterblood71. I would just put it down to you being a bit of a thicko.
“The BBC has no anti-apple agenda”
Sure, they MAY not have an anti-Apple agenda, but they certainly have a get-as-many-viewers-as-possible agenda. And the best way to do that seems to be to single out Apple on a specific issue – unfairly. Why is it unfair? Because Apple has been transparent on this issue. They have actually done something about it. You can go to their website and see their audit reports. Anyone can and scrutinize those reports FAIRLY. Yet what we’re fed are these stupid stories that single out Apple – even though Apple makes a small fraction of consumer electronics around the world, it seems that everyone wants to hold them responsible for ALL the poor working conditions around the world. Where the hell are the reports on those companies that employ these workers? How about the governments those workers live in? Etc.
While the story may in fact be factual, it is EXTREMELY biased at pointing a single finger in Apple’s direction saying they weren’t doing enough.
maybe they feel unpaid taxes are owed the crown. except that they’re not. come to think of it, i didn’t much care that time they came over and burned down the white house.
I agree that they won’t mention other companies that use the same Chinese suppliers and builders. I’m sure HP and Dell are paying their Chinese suppliers’ workers $30/hr.
It seems I missed the press release stating that Apple is now the government of China.
Most likely finding a way into Google’s and Samsung’s phone’s first. Sad, such BS over a company that sets standards for suppliers under there control. Nothing on the countries or governments? China and India, wow – shocker.
Gutless Wonders. Why not call it “Perils of Global Capitalism”? It’s not like Apple is the only company using tin or assembling electronics in China. Really sick of the mindless Apple bashing by lazy news editors.
Feather? Re “The BBC has no anti-apple agenda and in fact reports openly about all the good things that go on…a bit of truth…” Please note Majikthize’s post.
If the BBC were doing a general exposé, nobody here would be objecting. The targeting of Apple is utterly ridiculous. Not only are they one among a huge number of companies, but they are actually better than most or maybe all of them as regards these problems.
All the program is doing is challenging the notion the Apple is doing what it says about slave labor and it thinks it has found evidence to counter that. Let’s wait and see what the program says…like I said it is good to get the truth out about any company and Apple is not above reproach. Apple will of course have a right to reply but not doubt the Apple army has made up its mind already!
You’re expending a lot of effort (including some unwarranted abuse) in painting the BBC as blameless and without bias (clearly not true) and your agenda is just a bit too obvious. Yes, some posters might just have a knee jerk reaction to your trolling – but your arguments are very old and stale indeed, and some of us have taken too much time to become informed to take any notice of people like like you, whether well-meaning or shill-motivated.
Why doesn’t someone produce a documentary highlighting the bbc’s wilful acceptance of Microsoft sweeteners and ‘freebies’ in exchange for favourable coverage? The corruption of a British national institution no less.
A typical Apple fanboy comment…blame someone else when you have no clue.
Typical apple bashed reply. Just call someone a fanboy and pretend you’re on some sort of high road. No, you’re just one of those that like to tear down something good because it is also successful.
Oh really, you are welcome to your opinion!
Yours is not welcome here disingenuous one with a blatant deliberately inflammatory agenda.
For some considerable time the Beeb deliberately avoided producing any content that could run on Apple OS, sticking rigidly to MS.
Get your facts straight, feather, or be treated with the contempt you deserve.
You are completely wrong and will not bother arguing with you.
So, you’re actually 12 years old, and didn’t begin to notice technology until about two years ago?
That would explain why you don’t know about the BBC’s tech choices until fairly recently.
Damn, I knew there was a reason why…thank you SteveH, you are such a wise er person!
You have just lost what little credibility you had left, up till the moment you post this. Now, eff off.
The BBC used to be the crown jewel of good reporting. But the entire crown has slipped lately, not just the jewel. The travesty of its deal with South Yorkshire police to broadcast live the invasion and search of Cliff Richard’s house is exhibit 1. Its complicity in the Jimmy Savile affair is another. And it’s never been Apple friendly – for years it would use any other media player than Quicktime for its online videos.
I suspect this is an attempt to deflect attention and show that the BBC is fearless in going after multinationals, and what bigger or more loved to hate than Apple?
Sometimes I weep for what has become of certain aspects of my country.
Yes, it’s sad to see what was once a great reporting fall so low. I remember the Quicktime fiasco and the anti-Apple sentiment reigning at the BBC. Still I am interested to see what the program will reveal and I do hope that MDN has a follow up for commentary.
The BBC is still better when compared to the big four in America went comes to a wide variety of content.
How about an expose on selective, non-comprehensive & one sided yellow journalism by the disingenuous BBC and the media in general? Especially as it pertains to Apple. Should be fascinating in it’s staggering breadth and level of sensationalistic driven incompetence.
Well, I guess we should see their Apple report before we start this one sh?
The BBC is done plenty of expose’s on other companies before and it is perfectly ok for it to pick on Apple. Apple will obviously have the right to reply but it would seem you have already started to draw a conclusion before it has even been broadcast…who did you say was being sensationalistic?
I’m not the one who is doing the piece specifically about Apple. If it’s fair criticism that’s fine. If they don’t qualify their reporting based on the China labor industry as a whole they they are guilty of sensationalism.
Actually they ARE already guilty in fact because it IS about Apple or they are advertising it as such. If the BBC was doing their job it would be about ALL manufacturers and their impact in China on the labor market. Get the difference now?
Completely accept your point, however the Panorama are suggesting that they have found something contrary to what Apple says it is doing. Panorama has picked on specific banks in the past when you could argue why didn’t look at the whole banking industry. As you say let’s wait see what the program says.
We’ve been down this road before. . . when other’s have done exposés of Apple’s manufacturing plants and suicides. . . and lots of breathless press. Except it wasn’t at plants where Apple products were manufactured, but rather at plants where Microsoft Xboxes, HP computers, Sony Playstations, and Nokia phones were assembled. . . and the nearest iPhone was assembly plant was over 150 miles away! Yet the headlines were all about Apple and Apple work conditions because THAT was what drew the clicks to the advertising. It was only five or six paragraphs into the story that you learned what was ACTUALLY being assembled at the plants where the suicides occurred. Similarly accidents that occur are routinely reported as being at Apple plants. . . yet likely are not. . . or are only peripherally associated.
It is the pattern we’ve become very TIRED of seeing and having to spend an inordinate amount of time rebutting in this and other forums because of greedy and lazy reporting.
What can we expect from a network called Biggest Bull Crap anyway ? Truth?
Although I applaud Apple for the efforts they *have* made to ensure decent conditions for the works at their suppliers, it is the *suppliers’* responsibility to treat them decently (and THEY should take the heat of the fail in this), and the responsibility of the Chinese government to have and enforce safe & fair labor laws.
Of course, China isn’t interested in doing that, but Apple shouldn’t be lynched for their suppliers’ failings.
Is Ford getting bad press because one of their bolt suppliers, etc has poor conditions for employees? No. The press just likes to attack Apple.
Please post a head’s up when it is available.
The BBC is a Microsoft lacky sadly and refuses to report barely anything critical of that company while doing hit Leicester against Apple at every opportunity. No change here then, don’t expect a thing about the xBox factories or Samsung’s decidedly suspect working conditions.
You need to realise that Apple is no longer the poor underdog, it’s the most valuable company in the world. McDonalds aren’t the most evil hamburger sellers in the world, but they make the most money so attract the most scrutiny. They’re fair game. Whether you think the documentary is fair is not is another matter – have you watched it yet?
– Got an arrow?
– Aim and the BIG FAT TARGET and you’re most likely to actually hit it. IOW: Biggest-&-Best-Company-On-The-Planet problems. If Apple wasn’t also #1 at preventing abuse of contracted company workers, I’d worry about this exposé.
Meanwhile, it of course helps to point out that Apple does not own or run any company but themselves. But implying that they own, run and are responsible for EVERYTHING ON THE PLANET explodes the size of the target. Nice trick, if you can get away with it. They won’t. 😛
Don’t Apple still own FileMaker (neé Claris)?
Quite right. Never mind. 😉
Say, when was the last time BBC did a nasty on British Petroleum ..
Now there is a righteous one in their own backyard, who came over here and arranged to destroy and contaminate one of our biggest fishing grounds and destroy thousands of small businesses and jobs …
The BBC ran a documentary about BP called “Profit, Pollution and Deception” at the time, the clue to their conclusions is in the title. The BBC has its faults, and it will of course always be accused of being biased by somebody, but it’s the closest thing to truly independent journalism that I can think of, free as far as possible from political and commercial bias. Apple, being the most valuable company in the world, is a legitimate target, no matter what their competitors do. I believe Apple does more than anyone else, but Tim Cook needs to catch a flight to London to explain himself. Regardless of what you might personally think, a lot of people respect the BBC for its journalism. None of us have seen the documentary yet, so criticising it already is ridiculous. But Apple should take this seriously and respond quickly because whatever BBC Panoroma says will make news all across Europe.