China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated that the ban of BBC World News in China is justified, reasonable and lawful, after the UK revoked the license of Chinese news network CGTN, an action the ministry described as outrageous and unreasonable.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying revealed that investigations by China’s National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA), found that reports on China issued by BBC World News have seriously violated related regulations, violated the requirement that news should be true and fair, harmed China’s national interests and undermined China’s national unity. As a result, the channel does not meet the conditions for foreign channels to air in China.
“The NRTA will not accept BBC World News’ application to operate in China in the New Year.
“As people can see, BBC has repeatedly produced and reported fake news with a strong ideological bias against China, spreading false information on Hong Kong, Xinjiang and COVID-19 epidemic issues to attack and discredit China.”
Hua Chunying
The Foreign Ministry Spokesperson then listed several examples of occurrences where BBC had violated NRTA rules.
“Since 2019, BBC always chose to ignore violence by rioters when covering Hong Kong issues, blaming Hong Kong police brutality for the increasingly violent protests.
“On Xinjiang-related reports, BBC journalists based in Beijing only used a few non-real satellite pictures and the so-called reports of anti-China people to fabricate lies of the century to attack and smear Xinjiang.
“In reports related to the COVID-19 epidemic, the video of the anti-terrorism drill was even cited as evidence of China’s violent anti-epidemic efforts.”
She also slammed the UK as hypocritical, saying that on the one hand, it touts freedom of the press, while allowing its media to make false reports and hype the political nature of CGTN.
Hua’s assertion came after British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab denounced the Chinese authorities’ decision, saying it is “an unacceptable restriction on media freedom.”
She said China is a country under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and this was the case when China and the UK established diplomatic relations in 1972. It was also the case when CGTN was established in the UK.
Hua said that despite this, the UK people have not avoided dealing with the Chinese people, nor have UK businesses refused doing business with Chinese companies, or has the UK government rejected cooperation with China on major international and regional issues because China is a country under the leadership of the CPC. Why is working with the Chinese media now a problem? Hua asked.
She insisted that the UK’s ban is a political crackdown on CGTN and “as an international professional media organization, CGTN strictly abides by the laws and regulations of the UK and the professional ethics of journalism, and adheres to the principles of objectivity, fairness, truthfulness and accuracy in news reporting. CGTN is internationally recognized for its professionalism.”
China urges the UK to immediately stop political manipulation and correct its mistakes, said Hua, noting that the country reserves the right to make further “justifiable and necessary responses.”
