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Satellite, Cable & Digital: PICK OF THE DAY

James Rampton
Tuesday 08 February 2005 00:02 GMT
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Storyville: Made in China (9pm BBC4)

Can big companies make a healthy profit without compromising their ethics? This is the question posed in this edition of the Storyville documentary strand. Like many massive corporations these days, the Finnish firm Nokia, one of the world's leading mobile phone companies, subcontracts a lot of its manufacturing work to countries where the workforce is cheapest. However, these are often also nations where child labour, corruption and human rights infringements are rife. So, Nokia hire Ethical Managers in an attempt to balance the drive for profitability with the potential exploitation of the workers.

Documentary-maker Thomas Balmes accompanies a team of Ethical Managers to China and follows their efforts to put theory into practice. As a Nokia supplier in China is subjected to its first ever Ethical Assessment, a huge culture clash emerges. All in all, "Made in China" provides an intriguing insight into some of the costs of globalisation and the difficulties encountered when East meets West.

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