Decision – Star China Media Limited (due impartiality) - Ofcom

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Cymraeg

TV, radio and on-demand Broadcast standards Enforcement

Published: 8 March 2021

Last updated: 16 March 2023

Ofcom has imposed a financial penalty of £125,000 on Star China Media Limited in relation to its service CGTN for failing to comply with our broadcasting rules.

Between 11 August 2019 and 21 November 2019, CGTN broadcast the following five programmes:

The World Today, 11 August 2019, 17:00
The World Today, 26 August 2019, 08:00
The World Today, 31 August 2019, 07:00
The World Today, 2 September 2019, 16:00
China 24, 21 November 2019, 12:15

Each programme was concerned with the protests which were ongoing in Hong Kong during this period. These protests were initially in response to the Hong Kong Government’s Extradition Law Amendment Bill that would have allowed criminal suspects in Hong Kong to be sent to mainland China for trial.

In Ofcom’s Decisions published on 26 May 2020, in Issue 403 of the Broadcast and On Demand Bulletin (PDF, 706.0 KB), Ofcom found that each of the five programmes had failed to maintain due impartiality and had breached Rules 5.1, 5.11 and 5.12 of the Broadcasting Code.

Ofcom has imposed a sanction on Star China Media Limited of a financial penalty of £125,000.

Sanction decision – Star China Media Limited (due impartiality) (PDF, 775.0 KB)