The Huawei legal team has sent a demand letter to USA’s Wall Street Journal newspaper over its August 14 article that described the company’s alleged involvement with government cyber security forces in Uganda and Zambia.
In letter dated 16, 2019, the law firm Squire Patton Boggs (US) LLP represented by Steven A. Friedman said the the article is neither a fair nor a responsible representation of Huawei’s legitimate business activities in these countries.
“Huawei is especially disappointed in the Article and video and radio podcast in light of the information Huawei provided to you during your research for this Article, including its email communications from June 19.
Those email communications included specific information that a number of the statements in the Article about Huawei’s alleged involvement with government cybersecurity forces were demonstrably false,” said Mr Friedman.
He further revealed that the world’s largest telecom and IT solution provider does not know the identity of Wall Street Journal’s alleged anonymous sources, but it is clear that they provided the newspaper with false and misleading information.
“Based on Huawei’s June 19 email and other information it provided to you, it is reasonable to conclude that you knew that these sources were not reliable. As a result, and at a minimum, the Journal published these false statements in reckless disregard of their veracity.”
The legal team also said that their client takes these false and defamatory statements about its business seriously, especially when published by a news source as well regarded as the Journal.
“The publication of these false statements has and will continue to damage Huawei’s reputation and business interests across the globe. Huawei reserves all rights and claims in this regard and will defend its conduct and reputation. We would be happy to discuss with you related to this matter.”
