China barred Britain’s BBC World News from its television networks on Friday and Hong Kong’s public broadcaster said it would stop relaying BBC World Service radio, a week after Britain revoked Chinese state television’s broadcast licence.
China’s National Radio and Television Administration said BBC World News’ reports on China had “seriously violated” a requirement to be “truthful and fair,” harmed China’s interests and undermined national unity.
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), the publicly
funded broadcaster in the former British territory, said it was suspending the relay of BBC radio news programming.
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) said it appeared that China was trying to force foreign media to follow the Chinese government line, while China’s embassy in London accused the BBC of “relentless fabrication.”
RTHK’s Radio 4 (R4) station had carried BBC World Service radio for eight hours each night and the R1 station had carried a one-hour BBC program once a week.
The private Hong Kong platforms Cable TV and Now TV were still carrying BBC World News as of Friday.
Before the ban, BBC World News had not been included in most TV packages in mainland China, but had been available in some hotels and homes.
Two Reuters journalists in Beijing found that the channel had disappeared.
The BBC, which is a public corporation, said it was “the world’s most trusted international news broadcaster and reports on stories from around the world fairly, impartially and without fear or favour.”
British foreign minister Dominic Raab called the ban “an unacceptable curtailing of media freedom,” adding: “China has some of the most severe restrictions on media and internet freedoms across the globe, and this latest step will only damage China’s reputation in the eyes of the world.”
China’s embassy in London responded with a stinging statement, attributed to an unnamed spokesperson. “BBC’s relentless fabrication of ‘lies of the century’ in reporting China runs counter to the professional ethics of journalism, and reeks of double standards and ideological bias,” it said.
“The so-called ‘media freedom’ is nothing but a pretext and disguise to churn out disinformation and slanders against other countries.”
