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Beijing: Home of the state television broadcaster CCTV and its international program CGTN
Photo: Mark Schiefelbein / AP
The media dispute between Great Britain and China continues to intensify: The British media regulator Ofcom has fined the Chinese foreign broadcaster China Global Television Network (CGTN) a fine of £ 225,000 (EUR 262,000) for two cases of unbalanced reporting in the past.
The UK had previously banned the station from broadcasting.
In return, China responded by banning the British news program BBC World News.
CGTN had apparently turned to the French authorities to continue broadcasting in Europe.
If approved, the program could also be broadcast again in Great Britain, according to European broadcasting contracts, according to the Financial Times.
The fine now imposed consists of two parts, the first relating to a report by CGTN on the British Peter Humphrey, who was sentenced to a two-year prison term in Shanghai in 2014.
The station had broadcast an alleged confession by Humphrey, in which the accused pleaded corruption.
However, upon his release, Humphrey said the videotaped confession was a coercion.
CGTN is now to pay a fine of 100,000 pounds for this.
CGTN justified the broadcast of the recordings and said that Humphrey had given his approval.
In addition, it was not clear that it was a forced confession.
The second fine of 162,000 pounds was directed against CGTN's coverage of five incidents of protests by democracy activists in Hong Kong.
The British media regulator announced that the broadcaster had "failed to maintain the necessary impartiality" in reporting.
CGTN face further penalties in the UK
The British media supervisory authority justified the withdrawal of the broadcasting license for the United Kingdom in February with the fact that, in their opinion, the editorial content of the broadcaster is not controlled by the registered owner, but indirectly by the Communist Party (CP) of China.
The channel, which broadcasts in English, has come under repeated criticism in the past.
CGTN has been accused of following the CCP line in its reporting.
The broadcaster faces further fines as Ofcom has granted complaints about its coverage by two well-known Hong Kong dissidents, Simon Cheng and Gui Minhai.
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