British broadcast watchdog to punish CGTN for biased coverage of Hong Kong protests
- Reports ‘did not give due weight to a wide range of voices on this matter of major political controversy’, regulator says
- Star China Media, which holds the British licence for the Chinese state network, claims protesters didn’t want to talk to Chinese or Mandarin-language channels
British broadcast regulators have found that the Chinese broadcaster CGTN was repeatedly in “serious failure of compliance” of impartiality standards in its coverage of the protests in Hong Kong last year, a move that could increase tensions between the two countries.
The network, which has its European headquarters in West London, could face fines running into the millions of dollars or, in the most serious punishment, have its British licence revoked.
The investigation by the broadcast watchdog Ofcom focused on four episodes of the news magazine show The World Today and one episode of China24 that aired between August 11 and November 21.
In its defence, the licensee for CGTN, Star China Media Limited, said that pro-democracy activists had not wanted to talk to Chinese or Mandarin-language channels and that viewers knew CGTN showed a pro-Chinese, non-Western view of world events.
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“Our investigations found that CGTN failed to preserve due impartiality in five news programmes,” an Ofcom spokesman said on Tuesday.
“The reports, which covered the protests in Hong Kong and related developments, did not give due weight to a wide range of voices on this matter of major political controversy.”
“We have told CGTN that we are minded to consider imposing a statutory sanction for these breaches. The broadcaster now has the opportunity to make representations to us, which we’ll consider before proceeding further.”
In the case of the four World Today episodes, Ofcom decided to investigate after random monitoring. The inquiry into China24 was triggered by a complaint from a member of the public.
Star China Media told Ofcom that “as the Chinese public broadcaster”, it found it “particularly challenging” when trying to obtain alternative views “when reporting on the ground about the protests in Hong Kong”.
It cited the example of one of its Hong Kong-based correspondents who it said had tried “to approach and contact over 50 young protesters and/or the opposition when reporting on the Hong Kong protests over the past few months but most of them declined”.
Ofcom found, however, that the CGTN reports “failed to include and give due weight to an appropriately wide range of significant viewpoints in relation to the relevant matter of major political controversy and major matter relating to current public policy dealt with in the news item”, thereby breaking its regulations and conditions for granting a broadcasting licence.
Humphrey, a former journalist and fellow at Harvard University, and his American wife, Yu Yingzeng, were imprisoned in China in 2013 on charges of illegally trading in personal information.
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The couple subsequently appeared on Chinese state television and internationally, including on a CGTN broadcast in Britain, making a public confession.
This was followed by a complaint from Angela Gui, who objected to CGTN showing public “confessions” made by her father, Gui Minhai, the Hong Kong bookseller currently detained at an unknown location.
In November, another investigation was launched after a complaint by Simon Cheng, the former employee of the British consulate in Hong Kong, who said he was tortured by mainland Chinese police. He has accused the Chinese state broadcaster of airing “lies” claiming he solicited a prostitute.
Simon Cheng complains to Ofcom over CGTN’s ‘forced confession’ footage
“We are continuing to investigate fairness and privacy complaints about programmes on CGTN, some of which relate to alleged forced confessions,” said the Ofcom representative.
Tuesday’s ruling comes as the British government is looking to reduce the role of Huawei in its 5G roll-out and is preparing new legislation to limit Chinese investment in British-developed technology companies.
It also falls in line with US restrictions on Chinese media activities.
In March Beijing revoked the work visas of at least 13 American journalists after US President Donald Trump severely restricted CGTN and four other Chinese TV stations in the US.
Earlier this month Washington announced that Chinese nationals working for non-US news outlets would only be able to receive 90-day visas.
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