Beijing/London/Brussels: The British Broadcasting Corp.’s World News has been taken off air in China after the UK scrapped Chinese state-backed broadcaster CGTN’s licence last week.
BBC reports on China violated rules that bulletins should be “truthful and fair”, China’s National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) said in a note on Friday.
British foreign secretary Dominic Raab tweeted the decision represents an “unacceptable curtailing of media freedom” and that it would damage China’s reputation.
The situation escalated after Hong Kong’s public broadcaster RTHK said in a note that it would suspend the relay of BBC World Service and BBC News Weekly from 11pm Friday, citing the decision by China’s National Radio and Television Administration as the reason for its move.
UK regulator Ofcom last week revoked CGTN’s licence following which Chinese officials complained about BBC’s reporting on the covid-19 pandemic, and asked the broadcaster to apologize.
The BBC said it rejected “unfounded accusations of fake news or ideological bias”. BBC recently published and broadcast reports critical of President Xi Jinping’s government on censorship and camps in Xinjiang region.
NRTA will not accept BBC’s broadcast application for another year, China’s embassy in the UK said in a note on Friday.
The BBC’s “serious violation of broadcasting rules on accuracy and impartiality has undermined China’s national interests and ethnic unity and failed to meet the requirements for overseas channels to broadcast in China’s mainland,” it said.
A spokesperson of the European Union External Action Service sought the lifiting of the ban on BBC, adding it is the latest move by China “restricting freedom of expression and access to information inside its borders.”
In response, a spokesperson for the Chinese mission to the EU said NRTA’s decision is “entirely legitimate and lawful”, adding that “double standards shall not be applied to fighting disinformation”.
Ofcom said it scrapped CGTN’s licence as the holder didn’t have editorial control.
CGTN had asked for its licence to be transferred to an entity called China Global Television Network Corp., but “crucial information” was missing from the application.
The new owner would have been disqualified from holding a licence as it would be controlled by a body directed by the Chinese Communist Party, Ofcom said.
CGTN also lost permission to broadcast in Germany because of the removal of its U.K. licence, said a spokesman for the media authority in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia on Friday.
The authority informed broadcasters in the state that they have to stop CGTN programming, he said.
Tensions between China and the UK have been on the boil.
Last year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson banned Shenzhen telecommunications company Huawei Technologies Co. from Britain’s next-generation wireless networks amid security concerns.
Photo courtesy: Batchelor at English Wikipedia