Australian broadcaster SBS suspends use of content from China’s CGTN, CCTV after human rights complaint
- The decision was made after rights group Safeguard Defenders expressed its concern over the Chinese channels’ history of airing allegedly forced confessions
- Analysts say the suspension is unlikely to impact many viewers, as most Mandarin speakers in Australia do not get their news from traditional media
SBS, which airs multilingual and other programming intended to reflect Australian multiculturalism, on Friday said it would review the broadcasts after the non-profit Safeguard Defenders wrote to it expressing concern over Chinese state television’s airing of dozens of forced confessions between 2013 and 2020.
The SBS international news programme World Watch includes 15 minutes of English news from CGTN and a 30-minute Mandarin service from CCTV as part of its regular scheduling. Launched in 1978 as an ethnic-community-oriented alternative to the ABC, the country’s flagship public broadcaster, SBS receives about 80 per cent of its funding from the government but is guaranteed editorial independence under law.
Rowan Callick, a former China correspondent for the Australian Financial Review and The Australian, said the move was understandable given growing debate about public broadcasters “relaying content that may be generated in a manner contrary to journalistic and human rights ethics”.
But he said the decision was unlikely to impact many viewers, and also came as the broadcaster was increasing investment in its own Chinese-language content.
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“The CGTN daily relay of a 15-minute English-language bulletin is broadcast at 5am, and SBS itself has only [a television] audience share – albeit a steadily growing one – of 5 per cent of Australian viewers,” Callick said. “The CCTV rebroadcast, in Mandarin, is at a much better time slot – 6.30am to 7am daily – and has many more viewers. SBS has also made the daily CCTV packages viewable for ‘catch-up’ online.”