CGTN: UK regulators withdraw license from Chinese state broadcaster

CGTN: UK regulators withdraw license from Chinese state broadcaster

by

Media regulator Ofcom said on Thursday it withdrew the license from the channel after an investigation “concluded that the license is improperly owned by Star China Media Limited”.

Ofcom said that Star China Media Limited had no “editorial responsibility” for the channel’s production and therefore “does not meet the legal requirement to have control over the licensed service”. Star was acting as a distributor, not a supplier of the news channel, he added.

The regulators also rejected a proposal by the CGTN to transfer the license to a new entity after discovering that it would be controlled by the Chinese Communist Party and therefore disqualified by UK law.

“We have provided CGTN with numerous opportunities to comply, but it has not done so. We now consider it appropriate to withdraw the CGTN license to broadcast in the UK,” said an Ofcom spokesman.

Ofcom has already decided that CGTN has repeatedly violated impartiality standards by covering protests in Hong Kong last year.
CGTN was launched in 2016. It claims that it provides “accurate and timely news coverage to the global public, as well as rich audiovisual services, promoting communication and understanding between China and the world and enhancing cultural exchange and mutual trust between China and other countries. “

Headquartered in Beijing, CGTN has three production centers in Nairobi, Kenya, Washington DC and London.

– This is a developing story and will be updated.

.Source