British media regulator Ofcom has revoked the broadcasting licence of China Global Television Network (CGTN), the international english language channel of China’s state broadcaster CCTV, after the national regulator found that it was wrongfully held by a separate entity.
An investigation by the British regulator concluded that the Chinese Communist Party had ultimate editorial responsibility for the CGTN channel and it therefore did not meet the legal requirements for a broadcasting license under UK law. CGTN is operated by China Central Television (CCTV), under the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party. We have given CGTN significant time to come into compliance with the statutory rules. Those efforts have now been exhausted,’ Ofcom said in a statement.
The UK decision on Thursday to ban CGTN kicked off a bitter spat between the two nations with Beijing accusing the British broadcaster, the BBC, of “fake news.” China’s foreign ministry accused the BBC of pushing “fake news” in its Covid-19 reporting, demanding an apology and saying that the broadcaster had politicised the pandemic. The BBC said its reporting is fair and unbiased. On Friday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin slammed the Ofcom ruling as “politicising the issue on a technical point” and said that China reserves the right to make a “necessary response”. BBC broadcasts, like those of most major Western news outlets, are blocked in China.
Ofcom’s decision adds to friction between Britain and China, already strained by allegations of human rights abuses against the Uighur minority in Xinjiang, matters related to Huawei technology and widened residency rights for Hongkongers through BNO Passports. A leading british newspaper separately reported on Thursday that Britain had in the past year expelled three Chinese spies who were there on journalism visas for which Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed its unawareness.
(Source: DD News)
Aayush Pal 
Balaji Subramanian 
Palak Dogra