UK watchdog Ofcom has slapped a $274,000 (£200,000) fine on banned Chinese state-owned broadcaster CGTN for breach of privacy rules. The complaints against CGTN, which has already had its licence revoked six months earlier, involve two high-profile Hong Kong dissidents, Simon Cheng and Gui Minhai.
One of the dissidents claimed he was “forced into taking part in the interviews in circumstances where he was being held incommunicado while a video of the other confessing to soliciting prostitutes was aired". Gui Minhai, known for publishing gossipy titles in Hong Kong about Chinese political leaders, disappeared while on holiday in Thailand in 2015 and resurfaced in China, where he served two years in prison.
A few months after his October 2017 release he was again arrested, this time while on a train to Beijing with Swedish diplomats.
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He was hit with a 10-year jail term earlier this year on charges of illegally providing intelligence abroad. CCTV News show News Desk aired footage of Gui appearing to express regret over the drink-driving charges for which he was initially imprisoned.
Cheng, a Hong Kong citizen, disappeared while on a 2019 business trip to the neighbouring Chinese city of Shenzhen. He said he was tortured and interrogated by Chinese secret police while he was detained there for 15 days.
Ofcom upheld the two complaints “after we found the individuals concerned were unfairly treated and had their privacy unwarrantably infringed.”
The regulator revoked CGTN's licence in February after an Ofcom investigation found the international English-language satellite news channel was controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, which is not permitted under UK broadcasting law.
