| 04 February 2021
Following sanctions on the channel in 2020 for failing to preserve due impartiality and a breach of fairness and privacy rules, UK broadcast regulator Ofcom has withdrawn the licence for China Global Television Network (CGTN) to broadcast in the UK.
In the UK, broadcasting laws state that broadcast licensees must have control over the licensed service – including editorial oversight over the programmes they show. In addition, under these laws, licence holders cannot be controlled by political bodies. Ofcom says that after an investigation of the activities of the international English-language satellite news channel, it concluded that CGTN’s licence is wrongfully held by Star China Media Limited which did not meet the legal requirement of having control over the licensed service, and so was not a lawful broadcast licensee.