China Bans BBC Broadcasting Due To Reporting Of Uighur Muslims

JAKARTA - China issued a broadcast ban for BBC World News. This was announced by China's television and radio broadcasting regulators.

China has objected to the BBC's reports regarding the corona virus and the alleged persecution by China of Uighur Muslims. The BBC expressed disappointment with China's decision.

British mass media regulator Ofcom previously revoked China Global Television Network (CGTN) 's broadcasting license in the country. The revocation of the permit has been carried out since the beginning of the month after CGTN was found to be illegally held by Star Media China Media Ltd.

The UK also found a violation of rules committed by CGTN last year. At that time, CGTN broadcast a forced confession of British citizen Peter Humphrey.

In its decision, China's State Administration of Film, TV and Radio said the BBC World News report on China contained serious violations of broadcast guidelines. This includes the requirement that news must be honest, fair and not detrimental to China's interests.

Chinese authorities also said they would not accept a BBC application to go on air within the next year. The BBC said in a statement, "We are disappointed that the Chinese authorities have decided to take this action."

"The BBC is the most trusted international news broadcaster and reports news from around the world fairly, impartially and without fear or liking."

The television channel BBC World News, which is commercially funded, broadcasts globally in English. In China, it is largely confined and only appears at international hotels and a few diplomatic complexes, meaning most Chinese can't see it.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called the move an "unacceptable restriction of media freedom." The US State Department condemned the decision, calling it part of a broader campaign to suppress media freedom in China.

Relations between China and Britain have suffered a serious deterioration in recent months. The earliest triggers started in Hong Kong, where Beijing enacted a controversial new Security Act.

The law was issued after major pro-democracy movements across the region. In January, the UK introduced a new visa that grants 5.4 million Hong Kong residents the right to reside in the UK and eventually become citizens.

British reason, they said they believed China would destroy the rights and freedoms of the region. And in the past two years, China has systematically blocked or banned foreign media, including expelling journalists from three United States (US) newspapers by 2020.

As for the UK, the BBC website and its apps are banned in the country. In February, the BBC published a report featuring interviews with Uighur women. The women said they had been systematically raped, sexually abused and tortured in China's "re-education" camps in Xinjiang.

China's foreign ministry accused the BBC of making "false reports". Last month the US said China had committed genocide in its repression of Uighurs and other Muslim groups.

According to estimates, more than one million Uighurs and other minorities have been detained in camps in China. China denies it has persecuted the Uighurs.

Last year China's Ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming told the BBC's Andrew Marr that the concentration camp reports were "fake" and Uyghurs received the same treatment under the law as other ethnic groups in his country.