Chiswick-based Chinese TV Company Employs Former Ofcom Director

Same organisation is due to investigate broadcasting of forced confessions

China Global Television Network (CGTN), the Chinese state broadcaster with offices in Chiswick, has hired former board member of Ofcom while it faces an investigation by the same organisation.

The Financial Times is reporting that the company, which is also actively recruiting a significant number of journalists to work in Chiswick Park, has employed Nick Pollard who used to head up Sky News.

Ofcom has received a complaint that the Beijing-controlled group aired forced confessions. If the regulator decides that the company is in breach of broadcasting rules, CGTN could be stripped of its broadcasting licence which would probably mean a significant downgrading of its expansion plans in Chiswick where they have located their European headquarters. They have said they plan to produce objective news “from a Chinese perspective” from the location.

The investigation was opened in May after Peter Humphrey a British citizen claimed CGTN had aired a confession that he had been forced to make. Mr Pollard was hired one month after the complaint was submitted according to the Financial Times. He had been in charge of Sky News for over ten years and been on the Ofcom board for over two years with specific responsibility for reviewing complaints.

Mr Pollard told the Financial Times, “I am aware of course that Ofcom is currently investigating two complaints against CGTN for alleged breaches of the Ofcom Programme Code. While that investigation is taking place I would not want to comment on it and nor would CGTN.”

Peter Humphrey was working as an investigator on behalf of Glaxo Smith Kline in 2013 as part of an internal inquiry into claims of corruption at the company's operations in China. He was detained by the authorities along with his wife and accused of illegally obtaining the personal information of a Chinese individual. He claims that he was made to make a confession while sedated, and make an apology on state television. His detention lasted nearly two years.

Their jail terms were later reduced, and the two were deported from China in 2015. Mr Humphrey and his wife are contesting the verdict. He said that he developed cancer while in detention, which was not properly treated and that he has suffered PTSD.

This was not the first complaint against the broadcaster being investigated by Ofcom. Lam Wing Kee, a bookseller from Hong Kong, and Peter Dahlin, a Swedish human rights activist, have both lodged complaints against CCTV.

UK-based Angela Gui has also accused CGTN of broadcasting several public “confessions” made by her father, Gui Minhai, who is currently detained at an unknown location.

A similar Ofcom investigation into Press TV, an Iranian news network, ended with its UK licence being revoked in 2012. The decision, along with a £100,000 fine, was imposed after the network had broadcast an interview with an imprisoned British journalist, Maziar Bahari. Ofcom concluded the interview had been conducted under duress.

Separately, last December, Ofcom found that the Kremlin-backed RT news channel had broken UK broadcasting rules by “failing to preserve due impartiality”.

CGTN is the international division of the Chinese state broadcaster and provides a 24-hour news service that broadcasts mainly in English, but has programmes in Spanish, French, Arabic, and Russian. It was reportedly part of an effort to rebrand six of China's state-owned channels. The network's existing regional headquarters are in Beijing, Washington, DC, and Nairobi but it has taken a substantial amount of space in Chiswick Business Park.

Safeguard Defenders, a human rights group based in Sweden that campaigns on this issu,e says that the Chinese state broadcaster has shown more than 100 forced confessions since they started documenting them. At least 8 of these have been shown on the free-to-air channel broadcast into the UK. The founder of the organisation Peter Dahlin, who says he was also forced to make a confession on state TV, says the channel's journalists are actively engaged in the reports and not forced to broadcast them by the police.

Ofcom told the Financial Times that CGTN's hiring of its former board member would not have an impact on the integrity of the regulator's investigation. They said, “We've had no contact with CGTN or anyone connected with the broadcaster on these investigations other than through our established procedures.” i

The FT quoted a person close to the Ofcom board who said he felt “no unease” over Mr Pollard's move to CGTN, saying it complied with the regulator's rules and would not impact the investigation.

CGTN are not responding to requests for comment.

July 15, 2019