Beijing angrily takes on BBC in major foreign propaganda setback

Ofcom said in a statement Thursday that it had cancelled the broadcast license of China Global Television Network (CGTN) in the United Kingdom, after an investigation determined that the channel’s final editorial review was the responsibility of the Chinese Communist Party.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced today that it recently lodged a formal complaint with the head of the BBC’s Beijing bureau over the “fake news” about the Epidemic broadcast on January 29, demanding a public apology and threatening to reserve the right to take “further measures. The BBC also threatened to reserve the right to take “further measures.

According to a Reuters report today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China (MFA) has lodged a solemn complaint against the BBC for its “fake news” about the epidemic and demanded a public apology. The Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China (MFA) recently issued a formal complaint to the head of the BBC’s Beijing bureau regarding the BBC’s January 29 broadcast of a fake news story about the Newcastle pneumonia outbreak.

According to a press release posted on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Communist Party of China (MFA) on Thursday, the head of the Information Department was quoted as saying that the BBC’s recent news video on the new pneumonia epidemic linked the epidemic to politics, rehashed the “concealment theory,” “source theory” and “responsibility theory” of the epidemic, and included a video of the epidemic. This is typical of fake news with ideological bias and has a bad impact.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry official said, “China urges the BBC and its Beijing branch to take China’s serious position seriously, take practical measures to eliminate the bad influence of the report, and make a public apology to China for the fake news involving China, and China reserves the right to take further measures.” The said person in charge said. The official also stressed that the BBC should abandon its ideological bias, stop deliberately smearing and attacking China, abide by professional ethics and carry out objective, balanced and fair China-related reports.

Britain’s media regulator, Ofcom, canceled China Global Television Network’s (CGTN) broadcasting license in Britain, according to a statement issued by the agency on Thursday, saying a previous investigation had found that the channel’s final editorial review was the responsibility of the Chinese Communist Party, Reuters said.

According to Ofcom, “Our investigation showed that the license granted to CGTN was in the hands of an entity that had no editorial control over its own programming,” Ofcom said, adding that “we could not approve the grant of the license to CGTN because its ultimate control was in the hands of Chinese Communist Party, which is not permitted under UK broadcasting regulations.”

According to the Central News Agency today, the UK withdrew CGTN’s license, and China counter-criticized the BBC for news falsification, demanding an apology and threatening to reserve the right to take “further measures.

The “fake news” alleged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Communist Party of China (MFA) was a video news report published by the BBC Chinese website on January 26th, “The First Anniversary of Wuhan City Closure: Glorification and Denial”, which quoted a video of China’s anti-terrorism drills. According to the release, the head of the press department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry accused the BBC of linking the 2019 coronavirus disease epidemic to politics, rehashing the “concealment theory”, “source theory” and “responsibility theory” of the epidemic. “This is a typical fake news with ideological bias and bad influence. “

The release said that the person in charge of the Information Division stressed that China urged the BBC and its Beijing branch to take China’s serious position seriously, take practical measures to eliminate the bad effects of the report, make a public apology to China for the “fake news”, abandon ideological bias, stop deliberately smearing and attacking China, abide by professional ethics, and carry out objective, balanced and fair reporting on China. According to the report, the “Wuhan blockade” is a “fake news” report.

According to the report, the audio-visual news story “One year since Wuhan was closed: Glorification and denial” was reported by BBC China correspondent John Sudworth, who was asked by spokesperson Hua Chunying at a regular press conference of the Chinese Foreign Ministry why the Chinese Communist Party officially promoted the idea that the COVID-19 virus might have come from other places. The Central News Agency (CNA) said this was not a statement by Sha Lei.

On August 6, 2020, after his report revealed the film of the Xinjiang detention center, he was “solemnly denounced” by the head of the Information Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, who also accused him of “unreasonable sophistry” during the negotiation process. The report also accused him of “unreasonable sophistry” in the process.

According to the report, Hua Chunying is the head of the Information Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Ofcom, the U.K. media regulator, said today that it has revoked the broadcast license of China Global Television Network (CGTN), the official Chinese media outlet, in the United Kingdom. The company holding the license failed to control CGTN’s daily broadcasts, in violation of UK legal regulations.

CGTN, a global television network owned by China’s China Central Radio and Television, formerly CCTV’s foreign language international channel, set up its London headquarters in January 2018, hoping to use the UK as a springboard for expansion into Europe.

The BBC reported that Ofcom said that Star China Media Limited, which holds the license to broadcast the network in the UK, “does not have editorial responsibility” for the network. Therefore, “Star China Media does not meet the legal requirements to control the licensed service and is not a legitimate licensee.

According to the Central News Agency, in the United Kingdom, broadcasting law requires licensees to control their services and editorial policies.

In fact, according to Ofcom, an entity called China Global Television NetworkCorporation (CGTNC) is the “ultimate decision maker” for the channel’s content. However, CGTNC’s broadcast license could not be transferred to CGTNC because the “ultimate controller is the Chinese Communist Party, which is not permitted by UK broadcasting regulations.

Ofcom said it could not transfer the license because the application file lacked key information, “Globe TV was repeatedly unable to answer key questions” and failed to restructure. Although the network has been given “numerous opportunities to adjust to meet statutory requirements,” it has not been able to do so.

Ofcom stated, “We therefore consider that it is appropriate to revoke CGTN’s broadcasting license in the UK.”

According to the report, an investigation by Ofcom last May had found that CGTN’s coverage of news related to the Hong Kong protests was heavily biased and violated the principle of neutrality set by British authorities.