The head of the BBC has criticized China for blocking its news coverage after the broadcaster’s world news service was banned in China and Hong Kong.
Director-General Tim Davie said the BBC “should be able to do its reporting without fear or favor” and that “media freedom matters”.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Davie warned of “significant and growing global threats to the free media”, adding that some countries are trying to “increase their control over information”.
‘It is a deep concern if our journalists are restricted and their work restricted. It is important that in these difficult times when misinformation is plentiful, we have seen growing audiences for reliable news sources – including hundreds of millions coming to the BBC.
“Now, more than ever before, it is important that we speak out to defend free and fair journalism,” he said.
The statement comes in response to growing tensions between the UK and China over media freedom.
On Friday at midnight in Beijing’s time, China announced a ban on broadcasting BBC World News due to ‘serious content violations’, accusing the service of violating the requirements as true and impartial. The National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) also said the broadcaster had undermined China’s national interests and ‘ethnic solidarity’.
In Hong Kong, public broadcaster RTHK will also stop broadcasting the BBC World Service to listeners, reports say.
The ban was apparently a direct response to the decision to strip China’s state broadcaster of its British license on Thursday.
Ofcom decided to withdraw the broadcasting license from China Global Television Network, and ruled that the broadcaster would eventually be controlled by the Chinese Communist Party and thus violate the British broadcasting lines.
Earlier this week, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also criticized China’s decision to ban BBC World News, calling it an “unacceptable restriction on media freedom”.
“China has some of the strictest restrictions on media and internet freedom around the world, and this last step will only damage China’s reputation in the eyes of the world,” he said in a tweet on Thursday.
The European Union has joined a chorus of criticism over the move and called on China to reverse the decision.
The Global Task Force for Public Media, made up of directors of major news outlets, including ABC in Australia and ZDF in Germany, said they were ‘deeply concerned’ about the decision in both China and Hong Kong.
‘These actions severely restrict access to reliable sources of news and media freedom in the region. ‘Access to independent journalism is a basic right and essential for citizens to be informed everywhere,’ ‘reads a statement.
This is not the first time that China has criticized the BBC’s coverage, and earlier attacked the broadcaster’s coverage of the coronavirus pandemic and human rights violations against the Uighur minority in Xinjiang.