BEIJING (AP) – China has banned BBC World News television channel in a diplomatic fight with Britain after British regulators revoked the license of Chinese state broadcaster CGTN.
The movement on Thursday afternoon was largely symbolic, because BBC World was already limited to being shown on cable TV systems in hotels and apartments for foreigners and other businesses.
The National Radio and Television Administration said China’s coverage of BBC World News violated the requirements for the news to be true and impartial and harm China’s national interests and ethnic solidarity.
The Chinese government has criticized the BBC’s reports of the COVID-19 pandemic in China and allegations of forced labor and sexual abuse in the Xinjiang region, home to Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups.
“The channel does not meet the requirements to broadcast in China as a foreign channel,” the Radio and Television Administration said in a midnight statement on Friday.
He gave no indication as to whether BBC journalists in China would be affected.
Last year, the Beijing Communist government expelled foreign journalists from The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times during disputes with the Trump administration.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, in a written statement, described the measure as “an unacceptable restriction on media freedom” that “would only harm China’s reputation in the eyes of the world.”
In Hong Kong, government broadcaster RTHK said it would stop broadcasting BBC World broadcasts on Friday. He cited the order of the chief regulator.
On February 4, the British communications watchdog, Ofcom, revoked the license of CGTN, China’s English-language satellite news channel, which cited links to China’s ruling Communist Party among reasons.
A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Ofcom had acted for “political reasons based on ideological bias.”
The loss of the British broadcasting license was a setback for CGTN, which is part of the ruling Communist Party’s efforts to promote its views abroad. CGTN has a European operations center in west London.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price called it worrying that media operations were restricted in China while “Beijing leaders use free and open media environments abroad to promote misinformation. “.
Price called on the Chinese government to allow its people free access to the media and the Internet.
“Freedom of the media is an important right and is key to ensuring an informed citizenry, an informed citizenry that can share their ideas freely among themselves and with their leaders,” Price said.