The National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) of China has barred the broadcasting of BBC World News on the mainland claiming that it has done a "slew of falsified" reporting on issues such as human rights violations in Xinjiang based on interviews of victims surviving "re-education camps."
Global Times, the Chinese Communist Party government's mouthpiece, said that the broadcaster is responsible "for falsified reporting" on China's handling of the coronavirus in the country.
"China will not allow the broadcast of BBC World News in Chinese mainland after the broadcaster did a slew of falsified reporting on issues including Xinjiang and China's handling of COVID19, a move (that) experts said send (a) clear signal that fake news is not tolerated in China," the Global Times wrote on Twitter.
The CCP mouthpiece in an opinion article wrote that China has sent the outside world a clear signal that it has zero tolerance for fake news by barring BBC World News from airing in China.
"The decision comes as no surprise. According to the National Radio and Television Administration, BBC World News has been banned as some BBC's reports on China infringed the principles of truthfulness and impartiality in journalism," it claimed.
The opinion piece further accused the BBC of viewing everything concerning China with "double standards. And now, it is paying the price for what it has done."
"It stooped to a new low earlier this month when it published a sensational story alleging Uygur women were "systematically raped, sexually abused, and tortured" in the vocational education and training centres in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, only citing oral dictations of individual Uygur women without any verification," the Chinese state media wrote.
The CCP mouthpiece said that BBC is carrying out a public opinion crusade against China. It has become a propaganda tool for secessionist and separatist forces of China, threatening China's national security with false reports.
"In order to serve those secessionists, it has taken a preset position to make selective reports, degrading into a rumour mill. Given this, China has every reason to take action against it. China's punishment on the British broadcaster is reasonable. If we don't respond, it will mean we tolerate anyone to discredit us in this way. China must teach BBC a lesson," the Global Times wrote.
This comes after the Chinese Foreign Ministry has said that "BBC has made some false reports" on human rights abuses against Uyghurs in Xinjiang after the British broadcaster reported systematic rape in so-called re-education camps.
China has been rebuked globally for cracking down on Uyghur Muslims by sending them to mass detention camps, interfering in their religious activities and sending members of the community to undergo some form of forcible re-education or indoctrination.
Beijing, on the other hand, has vehemently denied that it is engaged in human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang while reports from journalists, NGOs and former detainees have surfaced, highlighting the Chinese Communist Party's brutal crackdown on the ethnic community, according to a report.
On January 27, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had stated that his opinions on the genocide committed against the Uyghurs by China have not changed.
President Joe Biden's nominee for UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the State Department was reviewing its designation of China's treatment of Uyghurs and other minority groups in Xinjiang as "genocide."
Prior to this, during his confirmation hearings, Blinken had agreed with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's designation of the Chinese Communist Party as having participated in genocide against the Uyghurs, Sputnik reported.
( With inputs from ANI )
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