CNN Declares BBC 'Banned' but CGTN 'Withdrawn' as UK and China Fire off in
Propaganda Battle
While this was clearly a tit-for-tat decision, many in the media still
managed to frame it as a chilling blow for free speech in China, ignoring
decades of media repression in the West.
by Alan Macleod
February 12th, 2021
Mint Press
By Alan Macleod
Chinese regulators announced yesterday that they are banning British
government-funded media outlet the BBC from broadcasting to its population
of 1.4 billion people. The decision to block the 98-year-old corporation
entirely elicited a storm of condemnation in the West. "China's decision.is
an unacceptable curtailing of media freedom. China has some of the most
severe restrictions on media and internet freedoms across the globe, and
this latest step will only damage China's reputation in the eyes of the
world," said U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the U.S. government was of a similar opinion. "We
absolutely condemn the PRC's (People's Republic of China) decision to ban
BBC World News," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, "The PRC
maintains one of the most controlled, most oppressive, least free
information spaces in the world."
The news should hardly have come as a surprise, however, as last week the
United Kingdom banned Chinese state-owned channel CGTN from its airwaves,
claiming that the outlet was ultimately under the control of the Communist
Party, something which disqualified it from broadcasting inside the U.K. Why
British regulators appeared to realize this only after 23 years of CGTN
broadcasts is unclear.
While this was clearly a tit-for-tat decision, Western media still managed
to frame it as a chilling blow for free speech in China. "BBC News banned in
China, one week after CGTN's license withdrawn in the UK," ran CNN's
headline (emphasis added), the story using the harsher word "ban" five times
in relation to China's actions, but referring to the British decision as
merely "withdrawing" or "pulling" a license.
The United States has long attempted to make it as difficult as possible for
journalists from outlets owned by adversarial nations to work inside
America. Reporters from CGTN (China), RT (Russia) and Al-Jazeera (Qatar)
must, by law, register as "foreign agents" under a resuscitated 1938 law
designed to help fight the Nazis. And while other countries can sanction
American outlets (Russia has just levied a fine of $150,000 upon U.S.-owned
Radio Free Europe), the fight is an uneven one, as the White House holds
considerable control over social media which reaches a worldwide audience.
Organizations such as TeleSUR, owned by progressive Latin American nations
including Venezuela, are frequently suspended from Facebook and Twitter with
little reason given. Meanwhile, Google removed Iranian-owned Press TV from
YouTube. And at the same time as Voice of America or PBS are considered
reliable and trustworthy sources by Silicon Valley algorithms, TeleSUR,
Press TV, CGTN, and others are demoted and deranked, consigning them to the
margins of the Internet.
Going further back, there was something close to hysteria when Al-Jazeera
America began broadcasting in the United States. Conservative pundit Glenn
Beck described the network as being "as close to being an enemy of the state
as any media can get" and insisted it would be used to spread Sharia law
across the country. Partially as a result of the bad press, Al-Jazeera spent
much of its time in court, fighting a great number of legal battles just to
be allowed to broadcast.
The growing war on China
The latest media spat between the West and China is part of a broader
conflict emerging both on and offline. The Trump administration went to
great lengths to impede the growth of Chinese tech company Huawei and its 5G
network. It also blacklisted a number of other Chinese entities, including
Xiaomi, who had recently been outcompeting Apple in the global cell phone
market. On Wednesday, the Biden administration signaled that it was backing
down on Trump's attempts to force Chinese-owned video platform TikTok to
sell to an American bidder or be banned from the United States.
The U.S. has also increased its military presence in eastern Asia, going so
far as to conduct provocative war games in the region and probe China's
coastline defenses with warships and bombers. Last week, Admiral Charles A.
Richard, head of Strategic Command, advised that the U.S. must prepare for
the "real possibility" of nuclear war with either China or Russia.
NATO-aligned think tank the Atlantic Council also requested that Biden turn
up the heat on Beijing, advising him to draw a number of "red lines" around
the country. If China were to cross these boundaries, which include
interference in its neighbors' politics or cyberattacks on the U.S., the
response should be a military one. Anything less would result in national
"humiliation," it insisted.
The Conservative government of Boris Johnson, recently divorced from the
European Union, has been courting the Biden administration, suggesting that
it could work closely with it on matters regarding China. The E.U. has taken
a more skeptical stance on American efforts to increase tensions with
Beijing. French President Emmanuel Macron has been leading the calls for a
friendlier Sino-European relationship. "I think we have to engage China in a
bold and efficient climate agenda," he told a no doubt disappointed Atlantic
Council last week. "A situation to join all together against China, this is
a scenario of the highest possible conflictuality. This one, for me, is
counterproductive," he added. If Macron's words are anything to go by, don't
expect any petty Chinese media bans from Europe in the near future.
Feature photo | A pedestrian enters the BBC's
