TNW recently broke a story about how Samsung invited two bloggers, Clinton Jeff of Unleash the Phones and another unnamed blogger, to Germany to cover the IFA conference in Berlin. When it turned out that Samsung were forcing the bloggers to operate as Samsung representatives against their will, the participants declined.
Samsung then threatened to cancel their hotel bookings and flight ticket. With the threat of being stranded in Germany, they were forced to follow what Samsung wanted them to do, act as company representatives.
After, they were hastily told to leave the country immediately. In short, they were not even allowed to cover the whole event.
It's a good thing that Nokia heard about their plight and picked up their tab so the two can cover the event in its entirety.
Now that the story is out, Samsung is doing damage control and stating that all is a misunderstanding. But according to the bloggers, the Samsung representative even told them that, "“None of this should leave Berlin. Or reach India..."
It's hard to believe that a big company like Samsung would bully two bloggers into submission. I'm not really sure if this is could be construed as blackmail. But hopefully the news gets out regarding this because if this gets buried, it's sad to find out that Samsung or some other company can do this to others again.
After their loss to Apple, Samsung needs to really clean up their image. Truth to tell, I was a bit sorry with what happened to Samsung thinking that they were unfairly treated in the Apple case.
But after reading this, maybe they are really corporate scum.
RELATED LINKS
Here’s how Samsung flew bloggers halfway around the world, then threatened to leave them there
Samsung “deeply apologizes” to Indian blogger: We put you through undue hardship
Unleash the Phones
