by Thinus Ferreira
China's state-run TV news channel CGTN (DStv 409 / StarSat 266) that has been described as a propaganda channel has been found guilty of biased coverage and is facing a fine after Britain's broadcasting regulator found that CGTN repeatedly breached broadcasting rules.
Britain's Ofcom in its judgment found that CGTN broke media rules at least 5 times in programmes like The World Today and China24 in August, September and November 2019 by blatantly favouring the Hong Kong government authorities and the Chinese government in coverage and their positions and comments, and not giving protestors the same opportunities or telling or reporting on their side of the issue.
CGTN that has a very small audience in Africa is carried on MultiChoice's DStv and China's StarTimes pay-TV services across the continent.
Ofcom found that CGTN in "serious failure of compliance" for its shockingly one-sided coverage in 2019 of the Hong Kong freedom protests, saying that CGTN blatantly downplayed the aggression and attacks by law enforcement and the authorities on the public and protestors and overly-focused on violent acts committed by protesters against police.
Ofcom found that CGTN shamelessly channelled the views from the Chinese and pro-China Hong Kong authorities that the protests and protesters are bad, focusing on the economic disruption to Hong Kong business instead of why there are protests.
In one of the biased reporting cases highlighted by Ofcom, the regulator found that CGTN "made no attempt to acknowledge or explore any alternative view at any point during the item, for example, that the Hong Kong police may have played a part in escalating tensions with protesters or that violence occurred on both sides".
CGTN told Ofcom that it did acknowledge that "there has been violence used by the Hong Kong police against protesters".
CGTN told Ofcom that international viewers of CGTN were "unlikely to be surprised by the Chinese views aired on CGTN and will be able to evaluate those views in context, particularly when the audience is likely to be aware of the mainstream positions as presented on other television channels and news platforms".
Ofcom found that the "5 breaches, taken together, represent a serious failure of compliance".
ALSO READ: TV CRITIC's NOTEBOOK. Wednesday night I deleted China's CGTN app from my phone after its shocking censorship and news bias became very clear - here's why you should too.
ALSO READ: China's CGTN news channel on DStv and StarTimes's StarSat shamelessly censors its coverage of the chaotic scenes and protests in Hong Kong while its Africa Live bulletin does pandering coverage of how Chinese business and politicians shine in Africa.
