UK revokes license of China broadcaster

London, February 4

China’s state-owned broadcaster CGTN lost its broadcast licence in the UK on Thursday after the media regulator concluded that the news channel was ultimately controlled by the ruling Communist Party of China.

China Global Television Network (CGTN) is an international English-language satellite news channel controlled by the state. “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,” UK’s media watchdog Ofcom said in a statement. — PTI