BBC World News has been banned from airing in China, a week after Beijing threatened to retaliate for the
recent revocation of the British broadcasting licence for China’s state-owned CGTN.
In a statement published at midnight Beijing time on Friday, China’s National Radio and Television Administration said BBC World News’s coverage of
China had violated requirements that news reporting be true and impartial and undermined China’s national interests and ethnic solidarity.
On Friday morning Hong Kong’s public broadcaster, RTHK, followed suit, announcing that from 11pm it would stop relaying
BBC World news, which used to run nightly from 11pm until 7am the following day.
In response, the BBC said: “We are disappointed that the Chinese authorities have decided to take this course of action. The BBC is the word’s most trusted international news broadcaster and reports on stories from around the world fairly, impartially and without fear or favour.