After Britain revoked the operating license of Chinese official media Global Television Network (CGTN), Vodafone Germany, a subsidiary of British telecom group Vodafone, will also stop the company’s broadcasts in Germany.
Vodafone Germany said Friday (Feb. 12) that it hopes to resume CGTN services, but currently does not have a valid license to do so.
A spokeswoman for the German regulator in North Rhine-Westphalia said CGTN is distributed in Germany under a British license. North Rhine-Westphalia is one of the regions served by CGTN, whose programming has now been taken off the air in the state.
The U.K. media regulator Ofcom revoked the U.K. broadcast license of China Global Television Network, the Communist Party’s major foreign propaganda organization, on Feb. 4.
Ofcom said in a statement that the decision came after it found that China Global Television’s broadcasting license was wrongly held by Star China Media Ltd. The media regulator also said CGTN was ineligible for the license because it was ultimately controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
The revocation of CGTN’s license to operate in the U.K. prompted fierce protests from Beijing. China banned the BBC from its television network on Feb. 5 and limited the BBC’s reach in Hong Kong.
Under the terms of a 1989 “cross-border television” agreement under the auspices of the Council Of Europe, a license issued by a European country applies to most of the entire continent, meaning CGTN may now have to go off the air throughout the region. The UK is still a member of the Commission.
All EU countries and many non-EU countries, including most of the Balkan countries and Ukraine, are signatories to this agreement. In principle, taking a license in any of these countries could allow distribution to resume.
Vodafone said that the company “is currently in discussions with representatives of regional media authorities and broadcasters regarding the revocation of licenses in order to clarify the legal situation”.
CGTN did not immediately respond to Reuters’ email request for comment on Friday, which is the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday.
As a countermeasure, China’s State Administration of Radio and Television (SARFT) announced at 0000 hours on Friday (Feb. 12) that it would no longer allow BBC World News to land in China and that it would not accept new applications from the BBC to do so.
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) said that according to the notification from the State Administration of Radio and Television (SARFT), starting from 11 p.m. on February 12, RTHK will no longer carry the BBC International Channel and the Cantonese program BBC Current Affairs Week.
China has heavily criticized the BBC’s reports on the New coronavirus outbreak and persecution of Uighurs in Xinjiang, saying they distort facts to mislead the public.
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