According to a statement from China’s National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) on Thursday, BBC World News has been banned from broadcasting in China in an apparent tit-for-tat step.
The news comes one week after Ofcom, the British media regulator, announced that it had withdrawn a license to broadcast in the United Kingdom on China Global Television Network, or CGTN.
China’s NRTA claimed in its statement that BBC World News had broadcast reports on China that “infringed the principles of truthfulness and impartiality in journalism.”
On February 4, China’s Foreign Ministry criticized the broadcaster for its coverage of China’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and dismissed its reports as “fake news.”
“We are disappointed that the Chinese authorities have decided to take this course of action,” a BBC spokesperson told CNN Business in a statement. “The BBC is the world’s most trusted international news broadcaster and reports on stories from around the world fairly, impartially and without fear or favor.”
