Media

China’s CGTN found in serious breach of UK broadcasting rules


The UK’s media regulator has found China’s state broadcaster to be in “serious” breach of its rules on fair treatment and privacy after it aired allegedly forced confessions, putting the network at risk of losing its licence to broadcast in the country.

Ofcom said on Monday that China Global Television Network’s two programmes China 24 and News Hour had breached rules “both in connection with the obtaining of material included in the programmes, and in the programmes as broadcast”.

The regulator aims to make a decision on the penalty within 60 working days, with potential sanctions ranging from a fine to the withdrawal of the network’s licence to broadcast in the UK.

The decision concludes one of Ofcom’s longest investigation to date. It opened the probe following a complaint in late 2018 by Peter Humphrey, a British citizen who accused CGTN and its parent network CCTV of airing a confession that Mr Humphrey said he had made under duress.

Peter Humphrey during a press conference in London in 2018
Peter Humphrey during a press conference in London in 2018 © Frank Augstein/AP

CGTN would not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Ofcom said the network had in its defence argued that the affected shows had “changed and evolved considerably, including in relation to its editorial staff, production and practices” since the two broadcasts in 2013 and 2014.

It had also argued that the journalists that filmed Mr Humphrey’s confession, which he claims to have made while drugged and locked to a chair inside a small metal cage, had not perceived him to be “in distress or under duress”.

The case has been unusual as Ofcom exempted Mr Humphrey from its usual requirement that complaints be lodged within 20 days following a broadcast, given that he was incarcerated and later battled post-traumatic stress disorder, which Mr Humphrey said was caused by his jail term.

Ofcom’s ruling is the latest blow to the Chinese state broadcaster, which in the past year has faced growing scrutiny in both the US and UK, as it has pushed to grow its international network.

The channel has been accused of being the mouthpiece of the Beijing authorities and has already been banned from advertising on Twitter over concerns that it was spreading misinformation about protests in Hong Kong.

In May, Ofcom found CGTN had broken its broadcasting rules on impartiality and failed to present alternative viewpoints to that of Beijing after separate investigations into its coverage of pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong last year.



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