The U.S. State Department condemned China in support of the U.K. after Beijing banned British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World News from airing in China.
"We absolutely condemn the PRC's decision to ban BBC World News," announced State Department Spokesman Ned Price during a press briefing at the State Department in Washington, DC, on February 9, as per One America News Network.
BBC World News recently reported China's COVID-19 propaganda and allegations of forced labor and sexual assaults in the Xinjiang region which is the home to the Uyghur minorities and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups. The "systematic rape, sexual abuse, and torture of Uighur women in Chinese internment camps" is the most recent expose BBC News reported.
BBC News reported, "more than a million men and women have been detained in the sprawling network of camps, which China says exist for the 're-education' of the Uighurs and other minorities."
Christianity Daily previously reported that China's National Radio and Television Administration have ironically banned BBC World News from airing in their country because of what the station dubbed as "fake news" -- reports exposing China's human rights violations.
BBC World News was said to "undermined China's national interests and ethnic solidarity" by going against the news reporting requirement of being "true and impartial," as per Xinhua News.
"As the channel fails to meet the requirements to broadcast in China as an overseas channel, BBC World News is not allowed to continue its service within Chinese territory. The NRTA will not accept the channel's broadcast application for the new year," China's National Radio and Television Administration said in a statement.
U.S. diplomats said on Thursday that Beijing is still one of the most oppressive and restrictive information spaces in the world. The banning of BBC World News to air in China is just another example of Beijing's further restrictions towards freedom of speech in the communist country, according to One America News Network.
"The PRC maintains one of the most controlled, most oppressive, least free information spaces in the world," Price said.
The U.S. State Department also mentioned that Beijing is spreading its own unrestricted propaganda in other parts of the world.
"It's troubling that as the PRC restricts outlets and platforms from operating freely in China, Beijing's leaders use free and open media environments overseas to promote misinformation," Ned Price continued. "We call on the PRC and other nations with authoritarian controls over their population to allow their full access to the Internet and media."
Dr. Bob Fu, founder of China Aid, an organization that helps persecuted Christians in the CCP-led country, said the Chinese Communist government has allotted a huge budget to fund its propaganda, and is paying mainstream news sites such as the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Reuters and the Associated Press.
BBC News is generally unavailable in China outside of some hotels, businesses, and residential compounds for foreigners, according to PBS.
The Blaze said that the banning of BBC News by China came a week later after the U.K. media regulator Ofcom canceled the broadcast license of CGTN for violating its license agreements and having discovered that CGTN is controlled by the Communist Party of China. CGTN is China's broadcaster CCTV English language service.
Dominic Raab, Foreign Secretary of the U.K., called China's decision to ban BBC "an unacceptable curtailing of media freedom" that would "only damage China's reputation in the eyes of the world."
