According to AFP, CGTN’s license is approved by French authorities, meaning the channel is able to back on the air in the UK…
Quote:
The Chinese English-language news network CGTN will be able to broadcast in Britain, despite being officially banned there, as a result of a ruling by a French regulator, it emerged on Wednesday.
British regulator Ofcom slapped a ban on China Global Television Network on February 4, arguing that CGTN’s state-backed ownership structure violated UK law.
According to Ofcom, a proposed transfer of CGTN’s licence to a different media group would still keep the network tied to the Chinese Communist Party.
But the Chinese network argued that, under the terms of the European Convention on Transfrontier Television (CETT), it was authorised to broadcast in another European Council member country, in theory allowing it to continue broadcasting in Britain as well.
Breaking: Ofcom have just revoked CGTN's license to broadcast in the UK
We have revoked China Global Television Network’s (CGTN) licence to broadcast in the UK, after our investigation concluded that the licence was wrongfully held by Star China Media Ltd. (SCML).
If my guess is correct, "Star China Media" might be the same Star China Media, which is owned by China Media Capital (CMC), an equity company headed by Li Ruigang (who was a head of Shanghai Media Group). Star China Media was formed as a part of the sale of some of the old News Corp's (and subsequently 21st Century Fox's) assets in Mainland China, which were previously a part of Star TV (yes, once a major player in Asia-wide media landscape - not just India - that the new Disney+ portal is named after), to the CMC. The News Corp assets sold to the CMC at the time include
Xing Kong Weishi
(a Mandarin Chinese entertainment channel), the Mainland Chinese version of Channel V music channel, and Fortune Star library of Chinese language films.
It’s interesting that this is now an issue (although I’m hardly sad to see CGTN go). The channel has been on Sky (originally as CCTV-9) for at least 15 years. Obviously, under it’s old name it was clearly under the control of CCTV so it’s hardly like this is a new thing.
This must put RT (and possibly TRT World?) on pretty thin ice.
CCTV9 was more documentary oriented programmes wasn't it?.
The original CCTV-9 (the news channel in English, which is now the CGTN channel) was renamed CCTV News in April 2010. Months later, in January 2011, CCTV launched two documentary channels (in English and Mandarin Chinese each) named CCTV-9; the English version of the documentary channel is now named CGTN Documentary, while the Chinese version stayed as CCTV-9.
Murdoch’s News Corporation launched Star TV in China in 2002, then News Corp helped CCTV-9 get the license in the UK “in return”… So that’s why CGTN’s license is hold by Star Media China.
A little OT but BBC World News is now banned in China due to "unfair" and "untruthful" reporting - must be related to the CGTN ban in the UK... Here's the official webpage translated by Google:
(By the time I post this the news just broke hence you might can't find relevant news in websites like Google just yet...)
Also in Hong Kong, China’s “special administrative region” which has the so-called systems that different from the Communist mainland, the public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong has stopped the BBC World Service livecast starting tonight… BBC Chinese’s current affairs programme is also scrapped by RTHK.
And the RTHK spokesperson previously said RTHK will scrap BBC World News, which was never been aired on RTHK…
Did the domestic News at 9 and 5 make a comeback? Last week I saw the numbered 9am intro and the News at Nine strap but this morning it used the generic one instead.
