China's top broadcasting regulator announced it will ban BBC World News broadcasts aired in the country, the news organization reported Friday, citing the state-run Xinhua News agency.
The decision made late Thursday was made one week after Ofcom, the British media regulator, rejected a license for the state-run China Global Television Network (CGTN) to broadcast in the United Kingdom.
The move also comes after BBC published an explosive story on alleged sexual abuses and torture occurring in Uighur concentration camps.
China's National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) said BBC World News reporting of China had violated preconditions that news coverage must "truthful and fair and undermined China's national interests and ethnic solidarity," The Guardian quoted NRTA as saying in a statement, Friday.
Most television channel packages in China do not have English-language BBC World News, but is available in some hotels and diplomatic outposts, meaning most Chinese people cannot view it. Two Reuters journalists in China said the commercially-funded BBC World News had gone blank on their TVs.
On Feb. 4, China's Foreign Ministry criticized the BBC for its reporting of China's management and response to the coronavirus crisis, rejecting the coverage as "fake news" and requested the BBC to make a public apology.
"We are disappointed that the Chinese authorities have decided to take this course of action," BBC said in response as quoted by CNN.
The BBC said it is the "most trusted international news broadcaster and reports on stories from around the world fairly, impartially and without fear or favor."
British Secretary of Foreign Affairs Dominic Raab called China's move "an unacceptable curtailing of media freedom."
The ban is yet another indication of souring ties between the UK and China, one of the UK's biggest trading partners.
