Australian broadcaster suspends China's CGTN citing human rights complaint (updated)

SEOUL BROADCASTING SYSTEM

05/03/2021 11:00

(Updates with Chinese foreign ministry response)
    By Kirsty Needham
    SYDNEY, March 5 (Reuters) - Australian broadcaster SBS said
on Friday it would suspend its broadcasts of news bulletins from
Chinese state television news services CGTN and CCTV after
receiving a human rights complaint. 
    An SBS spokesman told Reuters that programmes from CCTV and
CGTN would not air on Saturday and that SBS was reviewing a
complaint from a human rights organisation. 
    "Given the serious concerns it raises, and the complexity of
the material involved, we have made the decision to suspend the
broadcast of the overseas-sourced CGTN and CCTV news bulletins
while we undertake an assessment of these services," SBS said in
a statement. 
    A story on the SBS News website said human rights
organisation Safeguard Defenders wrote to SBS after Britain's
media regulator revoked the licence of CGTN due to "serious
non-compliance offences".  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2KA0US 
    "This is classic political persecution," said China's
foreign ministry in a statement to Reuters which urged "relevant
parties to cast aside their ideological prejudice."
    CGTN upholds the principles of fair and accurate reporting,
it said.
    "China will take all necessary measures to resolutely
protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese media."
    The letter from Safeguard Defenders to SBS said CCTV had
broadcast the forced confessions of some 56 people between 2013
and 2020. 
    "These broadcasts involved the extraction, packaging and
airing of forced and false confessions of prisoners held under
conditions of duress and torture," SBS reported the letter from
Safeguard Defenders as saying. 
    SBS is a public service broadcaster, providing news and
entertainment programming on radio and television in multiple
languages and focussing on multicultural issues.
    A 15-minute CGTN English news service and 30-minute CCTV
Mandarin language service were part of SBS programming. 

 (Reporting by Kirsty Needham; Additional reporting by Gabriel
Crossley in Beijing; Editing by Tom Hogue & Simon Cameron-Moore)
 ((Kirsty.Needham@thomsonreuters.com;))