The UK broadcasting regulator, OfCom (the Office of Communications) has banned the Chinese broadcaster China Global Television Network (CGTN) from broadcasting to Britain. An OfCom licence is required to broadcast on either terrestrial, cable or satellite into the UK. The broadcaster shows the English language version of the state television channels. They had previously been sanctioned for breaching the Broadcasting Code by partiality in their news coverage.
The various channels were broadcast free to air from the Astra satellite cluster at 28.2oE. This enabled any satellite dish user to access them without being part of a package. They were also available via a “portal” for internet connected TVs on the terrestrial digital platform. This appears to be down too. The OfCom statement explains the reason for the withdrawal of the licence.
In the UK, broadcasting laws made by Parliament state that broadcast licensees must have control over the licensed service – including editorial oversight over the programmes they show. In addition, under these laws, licence holders cannot be controlled by political bodies.[1]
Our investigation concluded that Star China Media Limited (SCML), the licence-holder for the CGTN service, did not have editorial responsibility for CGTN’s output. As such, SCML does not meet the legal requirement of having control over the licensed service, and so is not a lawful broadcast licensee.
In addition, we have been unable to grant an application to transfer the licence to an entity called China Global Television Network Corporation (CGTNC). This is because crucial information was missing from the application, and because we consider that CGTNC would be disqualified from holding a licence, as it is controlled by a body which is ultimately controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
We have given CGTN significant time to come into compliance with the statutory rules. Those efforts have now been exhausted.