China’s Foreign Ministry issued its own complaint against the BBC on Thursday night, shortly after Ofcom’s decision was released, saying it “reserved the right to take further action” against the British broadcaster.
The ministry said on its website that a report broadcast by the BBC at the end of last month about how China handled the coronavirus pandemic was “fake news” that, among other things, falsely described images of a Chinese anti-terrorism exercise as brutal measures pandemic control. The statement said the BBC must “stop defaming and attacking China maliciously and follow professional morals”.
Ofcom’s action was a sign that Britain is aligning itself with the United States as both countries’ relations with China deteriorate, said Kerry Brown, a former British diplomat and associate member of Chatham House, a British research institute.
Both countries fought with China over media issues.
The Trump administration declared Chinese news agencies as CGTN members of the Chinese state, limiting the number of employees they could have. China, for its part, expelled American journalists who worked for various vehicles, including The New York Times.
In Britain, although the CGTN did not have a large audience, the vehicle liked freedoms granted to all media in Britain. British media in China, however, faced barriers to their reporting for many years, Brown said. “It is an expression of reciprocity,” he said, although “it is seen in China as a hostile movement.”
The decision was “historically significant” and “justice has finally been served,” said Simon Cheng, a former British consulate official in Hong Kong who said Chinese security officials had tortured him in 2019 and forced him to confess to asking for prostitution.
Cheng, who was granted asylum in Britain last year, filed a complaint with Ofcom after the CGTN posted the confession on its website. “It is clear that the spokesman for the CCP’s totalitarian regime will no longer have a foothold in the UK,” he said in a statement posted on Facebook.