CGTN: British regulators revoke the license of the state-owned China Broadcasting Corporation

The Media Regulatory Authority Ofcom said on Thursday it had withdrawn the channel’s license after an investigation concluded that the license was wrongly owned by Star China Media Limited.

Ofcom said Star China Media Limited does not have “editorial responsibility” for directing the channel, and therefore “does not meet the legal requirements to control the licensed service.” She added that Star was the distributor, not the provider, of the news channel.

The organizers also rejected a proposal by the CGTN to transfer the license to a new entity after discovering that it would eventually be under the control of the Chinese Communist Party and thus would be excluded under UK law.

A spokesperson for Ofcom said: “We have provided CGTN with many opportunities for compliance, but they have not. We now consider it appropriate to withdraw the CGTN license to broadcast in the UK.”