Chiswick-based Broadcaster Being Investigated By Ofcom

Chinese state TV accused of broadcasting forced confessions in Britain

The Chinese state broadcaster CGTN, based at Chiswick Park, is under investigation by Ofcom, the UK media regulator, for allegedly airing forced confessions in Britain.

“We have decided to investigate a fairness and privacy complaint about news programmes broadcast on CCTV News,” Ofcom said. “If we find our rules have been broken, we will take the appropriate action.”

The investigation could lead to a fine and a withdrawal of CGTN’s licence to broadcast in the UK.

Former Reuters journalist Peter Humphrey, filed a complaint to Ofcom last November, accusing CGTN and its parent network CCTV, of airing a confession that Mr Humphrey said he had made under duress.

CGTN is the international arm of China Central Television, which opened a European hub in Chiswick Park at the end of last year, some two years after launching its English TV channel. It airs on Sky and Freesat.

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.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Media Show about his experience last month, Humphreys said he had been given a sedative before being removed from his cell and taken to a large interrogation cell surrounded by cameras where he was locked into an iron chair.

“I was in a total state of shock and trauma and I was also drowsy from this drug and the cameras were pointing through the bars of the cage and one of the policemen, who was actually my daily chief interrogator, was standing outside the cage with a clipboard and a list of questions and answers on it,” he said. “So he pretended voice wise to be a journalist asking me questions."

This is 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.

Ofcom confirmed it had launched a “privacy and fairness” investigation into CGTN, but said it would not comment on individual complaints. On Thursday, Ofcom confirmed it had launched a second investigation into CGTN based on the complaint filed by Ms Gui.

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.

Mr Humphrey says that, as forced confessions of alleged criminals are regularly broadcast on CGTN, they should have their licence to broadcast from the UK revoked. He has filed an official complaint against China Central Television and its international division, China Global Television, for violating British broadcasting rules.

Safeguard Defenders, a human rights group based in Sweden that campaigns on this issue 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.

CGTN did not respond to a request for comment.

May 11, 2019