China’s broadcasting regulator says it has taken the BBC World News off the air for what it called “serious content violations.”
The decision comes one week after Britain’s broadcasting regulator, the Office of Communications, revoked the license of the state-owned China Global Television Network. The office said the Chinese Communist Party oversees the network’s editorial policy, a violation of a British law forbidding political bodies from controlling broadcast license holders
On Thursday, the Chinese National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) said the BBC “was found to have seriously violated regulations on radio and television management” in its China-related reports, and “undermined China's national interests and ethnic solidarity.”
From her Twitter feed, Australia-based BBC World News Presenter Yalda Hakim said that according to NRTA, the BBC was responsible for a “slew of falsified reporting” on issues including the treatment of the Uighur ethnic minority in the western Xinjiang region and China’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement posted on Twitter, the BBC said it is “disappointed” by China’s actions.
