China has banned BBC World News on Friday from broadcasting in the country, according to a statement from China's National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA). In an apparent retaliatory move, the announcement comes one week after British media regulator Ofcom withdrew broadcasting license for state-owned China Global Television Network (CGTN) in the United Kingdom. It comes against the backdrop of growing conflict between Beijing and Western governments over issues ranging from human rights to trade and the COVID-19 pandemic. The BBC said it was "disappointed" by the decision.
China's NRTA said that BBC World News
reports about China were found to "seriously violate" broadcast
guidelines, including "the requirement that news should be truthful and
fair" and not "harm China's national interests". On February 4, China's
Foreign Ministry criticized the BBC for its coverage of China's response
to the Covid-19 pandemic, and dismissed its reports as "fake news."
China has also expressed its displeasure with BBC reporting on China's
actions on Uyghur and other ethnic Muslim minorities including alleged
forced labour and sexual abuse of women in the western region of
Xinjiang. The BBC has said it stands by its reporting as fair and
accurate.
It is unclear how much impact China's ban
of BBC World News will have in mainland China. BBC World was shown only
on cable TV systems in hotels and apartment compounds for foreigners
and some other businesses. Most Chinese people cannot view it but the
ban has also spread to Hong Kong, where Beijing has increasingly been
exerting control. On Friday, public broadcaster Radio Television Hong
Kong, or RTHK, announced that it would suspend airing BBC World Service
and BBC News Weekly.
Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab
said in a statement, "China's decision to ban BBC World News in mainland
China is an unacceptable curtailing of media freedom." China has some
of the most severe restrictions on media and internet freedoms across
the globe and this latest step will only damage China's reputation in
the eyes of the world," he said.
The European Union on Saturday called on
China to reverse its ban on the BBC World News television channel. The
EU said in a statement that Beijing’s move further restricted “freedom
of expression and access to information inside its borders,” and
violated both the Chinese constitution and the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. The US State Department condemned the decision, calling it
part of a wider campaign to suppress free media in China.
It wasn’t clear whether BBC reporters in
China would be affected. Last year, Beijing expelled foreign reporters
for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times
amid disputes with the Trump administration and complaints over media
criticism of the ruling Communist Party. Britain’s Ofcom, revoked the
license for CGTN, China’s English-language satellite news channel, on
Feb. 4, citing links to the Communist Party, among other reasons.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Ofcom acted on “political grounds based on ideological bias.” Ofcom’s revocation of broadcasting license was a major blow for CGTN, which is part of a global effort by China to promote its views and challenge Western media narratives about the country, into which it has poured enormous resources. London was a major hub for CGTN operations in Europe.
source ; BBC World News
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