CGTN is taken off the air in Germany after being taken off the air in the UK

On Friday (Feb. 12), Vodafone Germany said it had also taken CGTN off the air in Germany due to licensing issues after Ofcom last week revoked its license to broadcast in the U.K., the Communist Party’s official media outlet.

For European countries that are signatories to the European Convention on Cross-Border Television (ECTT), stations have the right to broadcast to all other signatories as long as they have a license to broadcast in one of them.

Vodafone Germany, a subsidiary of the London-based multinational telecommunications company Vodafone Group, had previously obtained the right to broadcast CGTN in Germany through a license applied for in the UK. But after Ofcom revoked its license in the U.K., CGTN programming in Germany was taken off the air along with it.

Vodafone Germany said in a statement on Friday that it hopes to resume broadcasting because it does not have a legal license, so it is currently communicating with local authorities in Germany and representatives of CGTN regarding the license to clarify the current legal situation.

A spokesman for the regulator in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (which has been taken off the air) said CGTN had previously been operating under a British license, but that no longer applies.

It’s unclear whether CGTN’s current situation in Germany is due to the UK’s revocation of CGTN’s license or to the UK’s departure from the EU’s single market (where single market member states recognize each other’s regulation).

What’s even less clear is whether CGTN will be taken off the air in more European countries if it follows this rule until it gets a new license in one of the countries that signed up for ECTT.

Analysts believe that CGTN may not be able to apply for a German license because under German law, stations funded primarily by the government budget cannot obtain a domestic broadcast license in Germany.

In retaliation for the U.K.’s cancellation of its license, the Communist Party issued a statement in the early hours of the first day of the Chinese New Year cancelling the BBC’s landing license in the U.K., an act that has been criticized by the U.K. and U.S. political establishment.