A man uses his cell phone to photograph the China Central Television building in Beijing. (March 5, 2021)
Australian radio station SBS said on Friday (March 5) that it would suspend broadcasts from China’s official media, CCTV and CGTN, after receiving a letter of complaint from a human rights group.
The human rights group Safeguard Defenders had previously sent a letter to SBS Radio, claiming that CCTV in China aired footage of some 56 people being forced to confess to crimes between 2013 and 2020, a significant portion of which was broadcast not only within China but also through CCTV and CGTN. CGTN successfully went overseas and went international.
The letter states, “These broadcasts involved the extraction, packaging and broadcast of false confessions forced from prisoners under conditions of coercion and torture.”
SBS, which previously would regularly carry a 30-minute Mandarin-language program on CCTV and a 15-minute English-language program on CGTN, has now announced that it will suspend the broadcast of CCTV and CGTN content and censor it.
A spokesperson for the station said:- “SBS has received complaints and is currently reviewing them.”
SBS also noted in a statement, “In light of the serious concerns raised by its [the Protector] and the complexity of the content involved, we have decided to suspend the broadcast of CGTN and CCTV news bulletins from overseas while we evaluate these services.”
In a statement to Reuters, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the SBS move “is typical of political persecution” and urged “all parties concerned to abandon ideological bias.”
The statement added: “China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese media.”
Both CCTV and CGTN are affiliated with China’s Central Radio and Television (CRTV). Publicly available information shows that CCTV is directly under the Chinese State Council and is under the leadership of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee.CGTN’s main responsibilities include propagating the theories and lines of policy of the Communist Party of China, strengthening international communication capacity, and telling the Chinese story. CGTN is basically funded by the Chinese government’s general public budget allocation.
Ofcom revoked CGTN’s broadcast license in the U.K. on Feb. 4 after an investigation found that it was wrongly held by Star China Media Ltd. The UK also found that Star China Media did not provide editorial oversight of CGTN’s English-language programming in the UK, stating that “licensees cannot be controlled by political bodies.
After CGTN’s license was revoked in the UK, it issued a statement saying that in early 2020, “manipulated by some far-right groups and anti-China forces, Ofcom suddenly launched an investigation into CGTN’s English-language news channel’s landing license in the UK. Ofcom’s decision is regrettable and strongly opposed”.
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