There was one less TV channel for China’s 1.4 billion people to tune into during this Chinese New Year after the nation banned the BBC from broadcasting to its citizens.
China’s National Radio and Television Administration said Friday that it won’t allow BBC World News to continue airing inside China and in Hong Kong. It accused the BBC of failing to meet the requirement for news to be truthful and fair, and accused it of damaging China’s national interests.
The BBC said in a statement: “The BBC is the world’s most trusted international news broadcaster and reports on stories around the world fairly, impartially and without fear or favour.”
It added: “We are disappointed that the Chinese authorities have decided to take this course of action.”
The BBC has recently covered a number of sensitive issues in China, including its treatment of the minority Uighur people in China’s Xinjiang province.
On Feb. 2, the BBC reported on the alleged rape and torture of women in “re-education” camps for Uighurs. The Chinese government told the BBC the allegations were “completely unfounded.” It said the “centers” in Xinjiang are designed to combat extremism and develop Uighurs’ vocational skills.
On the coronavirus, the BBC broadcast footage in December of what appeared to be people being aggressively hauled away for testing by authorities. It also questioned whether China’s death figures can be trusted.
China has criticized the BBC for its reporting on Xinjiang and the coronavirus. The Chinese embassy in London did not respond to a CNBC request for comment but the Chinese government says that its response to the virus has been swift and effective.
Tim Davie, the head of the BBC, hit back at China’s decision on Saturday, saying “media freedom matters.”
The broadcaster’s director general said on Twitter that the latest developments are “deeply worrying” and argued that the BBC should be able to do its reporting “without fear or favour.”
He added: “It is of deep concern when our journalists are restricted and their work curtailed.”
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Thursday that China’s decision to ban BBC World News in mainland China is an “unacceptable curtailing” of media freedom.
“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,” he said on Twitter. CNBC has reached out to the Chinese embassy in London for comment.
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China, a professional association of Beijing-based journalists, said it was concerned by the reasons China’s National Radio and Television Administration gave for the BBC ban, including the charge that BBC broadcasts have harmed China’s national interests and undermined China’s national unity.
The FCCC said it thinks such language is “intended to send a warning to foreign media operating in China that they may face sanctions if their reporting does not follow the Chinese party line about Xinjiang and other ethnic minority regions.”
A BBC employee, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the discussion, that it’s “obviously worrying for the audience over there that a neutral news service has gone.”
Meanwhile, Matthew Brennan, a China-based technology analyst, that the block is a shame, but not unsurprising.
