A former employee of the British Consulate in Hong Kong, Simon Cheng, who accuses China’s secret police of kidnapping and torture, has filed a complaint to Britain.’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) against China Global Television Network (CGTN) for having broadcast what he called his forced TV confession, VOA news reports.
Observers say Cheng’s case follows similar complaints earlier by British citizen Peter Humphrey and missing Swedish bookseller Gui Minhai, all of which highlights the Chinese broadcaster’s alleged violation of many sections of the British Broadcasting Code.
Ofcom is also looking into CGTN’s alleged biased coverage of Hong Kong’s months-long pro-democracy protests.
If convicted, CGTN — the international arm of Chinese state media CCTV — may be given punishments or even lose its license to broadcast in Britain, which will hurt its expansion plan in Europe, they add.
Trial by Media
Cheng’s Ofcom complaint, obtained by VOA, stated that a 54-second-long news report about his alleged solicitation of prostitutes, aired by the channel’s China24 program last Thursday, was inaccurate, unfair and one-sided.
For example, the newscaster started by saying that Cheng was on trial in August, which he denied.
“This is a direct lie. There has been no trial, not even an indictment,” Cheng said in the complaint.
“In fact, I was, according to Chinese police, placed in ‘administrative detention,’ which is not a judicial process at all, it is an extra-judicial measure,” he added.
Cheng was released in late August after a 15-day incommunicado detention.
The CGTN also aired what it called “video evidence” of Cheng’s illegal solicitation of prostitution, that is, surveillance camera footages, released by the police, in which, Cheng insisted that he was visiting a massage parlor, not a brothel.
Such a mistake could have been easily verified or at least Cheng’s responses should have been included to balance the report.
No Journalistic Merit
“Broadcasting such a ‘confession’ has no journalistic merit and is not the behavior of a real media outlet,” Cheng said in the complaint.
“CGTN did not solicit comments, inputs or responses. Nor was I in any way approached to give my consent to this defamatory and inaccurate broadcast,” he added.
Forced TV confessions have long been a problematic practice in China, said Lo Shih-hung, professor of communications at National Chung Cheng University in Taipei.
“Many past cases have shown [the accused] giving confession, apologizing or repenting in front of the CCTV’s camera. This has never been a due practice in any democratic country where the rule of law prevails,” Lo said.
“On one hand, the report isn’t balanced. On the other, the accused is deprived of rights to a fair trial, which infringes basic human rights,” he added.
Rights group Safeguard Defenders said that that the CGTN report was meant to smear Cheng as it was aired one day after he broke silence and openly disclosed in full in an online statement and media interviews how he was kidnapped, detained, tortured and forced to confess.
According to Cheng, the confession was extracted and recorded in the last four days of his detention under circumstances where he was threatened to serve a two-year sentence on charges of endangering national security if he failed to give answers that pleased the police.
Smear tactics
“The broadcast, which presents accusations as facts, is intended to smear Simon, reduce his credibility,” the rights group said in a press statement.
Safeguard Defenders has documented a series of forced TV confessions as a phenomenon since China’s top leader Xi Jinping came to power.
The group, which has experience in assisting Cheng and several others filing Ofcom complaints, is confident that CGTN will be convicted.
“It’s very difficult for Ofcom not to convict CGTN. So, the question then of course is, well, what’s the punishment?” said Peter Dahlin, director of Safeguard Defenders.
“It can go anywhere from a warning to a fine, to losing their license. We’ve seen this happen before with Iran’s Press TV [losing] their license for broadcasting one of these forced confessions,” he added.
In July, a Kremlin-funded news channel, formerly known as Russia Today, was fined 200,000 pounds by Ofcom for its failure on seven occasions of presenting due impartiality in its news reports.
Expanding influence in Europe
According to Dablin, CGTN is taking these Ofcom complaints very seriously as sources inside its headquarters in Beijing revealed that emergency meetings had been called to address previous complaints.
And before Cheng, the broadcaster had refrained from airing such confessions for a period of time, he said.
The rights activist said that, being on the Ofcom’s radar will mean a big setback to the CGTN’s plan of expanding its influence in Europe given its American arm has already registered as a foreign agent in the U.S.
And he hopes the move will help many others avoid such unfair media treatments.
Lo said CGTN can still expand into other European countries should its license be revoked in London, but a conviction of any sort will no doubt hurt its reputation as a news outlet.
VOA’s calls, voice message and email to CGTN’s contact person, Alice Tang of Star China Media Ltd. in Hong Kong, went unanswered.
An email to the broadcaster’s headquarters in Beijing produced no reply.
The Ofcom said, in an email reply to VOA, it usually spends 25 working days on assessing whether to entertain a complaint and another 90 working days on concluding its consideration or adjudication of such a complaint.