BEIJING (AP) – China has banned the BBC World News television channel in a diplomatic battle with Britain after British regulators revoked the license of Chinese broadcaster CGTN.
The move late Thursday was largely symbolic, as BBC World was already limited to showing on cable TV systems in hotels and apartments for foreigners and other businesses.
The National Radio and Television Administration has said BBC World News’ coverage of China violates the requirements that news reports are true and impartial, undermining China’s national interests and ethnic solidarity.
The Chinese government has criticized BBC reports on the COVID-19 pandemic in China and on allegations of forced labor and sexual abuse in the Xinjiang region, home to the Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups.
“The channel does not meet the requirements to broadcast in China as an overseas channel,” the radio and television administration said in a statement at midnight Friday.
It gave no indication as to whether BBC reporters would be affected in China.
The communist government in Beijing last year suspended foreign reporters for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times during disputes with the Trump administration.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called the move in a written statement an “unacceptable curtailment of media freedom” that would “only damage China’s reputation in the eyes of the world”.
In Hong Kong, government broadcaster RTHK said it would no longer carry BBC World broadcasts on Friday. It quoted the order of the chief regulator.
The British communications watchdog, Ofcom, revoked the license for CGTN, China’s English – speaking satellite news channel, on 4 February. Among other things, he cites links to the ruling Communist Party in China.
A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Ofcom had acted on ideological bias on political grounds.
The loss of its British broadcasting license was a setback for CGTN, which was part of the ruling Communist Party’s efforts to advance its views abroad. CGTN has a European operations center in West London.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price called it a concern that media activities within China were restricted, while “Beijing’s leaders use free and open media environments overseas to promote misinformation.”
Price called on the Chinese government to allow its people free access to the media and the internet.
“Media freedom is an important right and that is the key to ensuring an informed citizen, an informed citizen who can freely share their ideas with each other and with their leaders,” Price said.