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China warns it may retaliate over Britain’s move to cancel CGTN’s broadcasting licence
- Beijing says it’s ‘firmly opposed’ to the decision and reserves the right to ‘take necessary measures’ to protect Chinese media
- Foreign ministry has also accused the BBC of spreading ‘fake news’ in a Covid-19 report
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Beijing said it was “firmly opposed” to Britain’s decision to revoke a Chinese state media outlet’s broadcasting licence and threatened to retaliate, as relations deteriorate over human rights issues in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
The Office of Communications (Ofcom) cancelled the licence on Thursday, saying English-language news channel China Global Television Network (CGTN) was not under the editorial control of the registered licensee but the Chinese Communist Party. It said “licence holders cannot be controlled by political bodies”.
CGTN – which is broadcast in more than 100 countries – is operated by China Central Television (CCTV), under the party’s Publicity Department.
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On Friday, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the British media regulator had “politicised a technical issue” which would have a severe impact on Chinese media, and had “gravely disrupted normal bilateral exchanges between the two countries”.
02:51
UK Foreign Minister Dominic Raab on Hong Kong activists and Xinjiang Uygurs
UK Foreign Minister Dominic Raab on Hong Kong activists and Xinjiang Uygurs
“China is firmly opposed to this decision,” Wang said, adding that CGTN was an international media outlet that strictly obeyed British laws and was “objective, fair, true and accurate” in its reporting.
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