Nokia, Siemens Risk Image for Profit
Nokia, the mobile phone maker, and Siemens, a German electronics company, are facing growing boycotts of their products and services around the world today by being accomplices-for-profit with the repressive regime in Iran. It is becoming a global PR nightmare for the two greedy companies.
In short, Nokia and Siemens have sold spy equipment to the repressive Iranian government to intercept private email and Internet communications and to permit Iranian police to eavesdrop on cell phone calls and use cell signals to pinpoint the location of persons who might be protesting the recent election results in Iran by zeroing in on their cell phones.
When I heard of what Nokia and Siemens had done, my thoughts immediately went to Neda, the young Iranian student who was killed by a police sniper a few weeks ago while she was watching a protest but not participating. She was using her cell phone at the time of her death. Her senseless killing sparked days of demonstrations in Iran.
The Washington Times reports today that the actions by Siemens, a company that is no stranger to corruption and controversy, could result in the company losing “hundreds of millions of dollars in sales to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) because it sold Iran equipment used to spy on dissidents.” More than a million Persians live in the Los Angeles area and have become a powerful political force in the city.
Filed Under: Crisis Communications • Featured
About the Author: David is a veteran communications strategist ... writer ... blogger ... online publisher ... and Emmy Award winning former CBS Network News correspondent. He lives in the Washington, D. C., area, and works worldwide.
I for one, will make sure that I do not buy their products. I am done with the making money at all costs crew, and the greed and corruption that accompanies it. My act alone may only make me feel good, but if enough of us do it, it will be an act “heard round the world”!
I believe the standards of ethics of the corporate world are low, As long as we have market based economic systems that focuses on multiplying profits at the expense of morality , we will continue to be in the mess that we are currently in.
Praveen
Bangalore.
I just left a company which is working very hard to bring its industrial products to Iran. They are not particularly greedy as much as they are completely unaware of the extent to which the Iranian government does not respect the rights of its citizens.
It used to be “oh those poor Bahá’ís”. But now I hope the world sees that any regime that is capable of denying one group of people their human rights, is capable of denying anyone they perceive as a threat any rights.