China has banned BBC World News from broadcasting in the country, its television and radio regulator announced on Thursday.
China has criticized the BBC for its coverage of coronavirus and the persecution of the Uighurs ethnic minority.
The BBC said it was “disappointed” with the decision.
This follows the British media regulator, Ofcom, which revokes the state broadcaster China Global Television Network (CGTN)’s license for broadcasting in the United Kingdom.
Ofcom’s decision comes earlier this month after it found that CGTN’s license was incorrectly used by Star China Media Ltd.
CGTN was also found in breach of British broadcasting regulations last year for broadcasting the alleged forced confession of British citizen Peter Humphrey.
In its decision, China’s state, television and radio administration said it found that BBC World News reports on China ‘seriously violated’ broadcasting guidelines, including ‘the requirement that news be truthful and fair’ and not ‘China’s national interests must not be harmed ‘.
It is said that the BBC’s application to be broadcast for another year will not be accepted.
The BBC said in a statement: ‘We are disappointed that the Chinese authorities have decided to pursue this action. The BBC is the world’s most trusted international news broadcaster and reports reasonably, impartially and without fear or favor on stories from around the world. ‘
The commercial TV channel BBC World News is broadcast worldwide in English. In China, it is largely restricted and appears only in international hotels and some diplomatic connections, which means most Chinese people cannot see it.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called the move an “unacceptable restriction on media freedom”.
China’s decision to ban BBC World News from mainland China is an unacceptable curtailment of 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.
– Dominic Raab (@DominicRaab) 11 February 2021
The US State Department condemns the decision, calling it part of a broader campaign to suppress free media in China.
Relations between China and the United Kingdom have seriously deteriorated over the past few months over Hong Kong, where Beijing introduced a controversial new security law after a major pro-democracy movement swept the former colony.
In January, the UK introduced a new visa giving Hong Kong residents 5.4 million the right to live in the UK and eventually become citizens because it believes China is undermining the area’s rights and freedoms.
And for the past two years, China has been systematically blocking or banning foreign media, including the fact that in 2020 they will expel journalists from three American newspapers. The BBC website and its app have already been banned in the country.
In February, the BBC published a report with interviews with Uighur women who said they had been systematically raped, sexually abused and tortured in China’s “re-education” camps in Xinjiang. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has accused the BBC of making a ‘false report’.
Last month, the US said that China had committed genocide in the oppression of the Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim groups.
It is estimated that more than a million Uighurs and other minorities have been detained in camps in China.
China denies persecution. Last year, China’s British ambassador, Liu Xiaoming, told the BBC’s Andrew Marr that reports of concentration camps were “false” and that Uighurs were receiving the same treatment under the law as other ethnic groups in his country.