OREANDA-NEWS. The British regulator in the field of media and telecommunications «Ofcom» revoked on Thursday, February 4, the license of the Chinese news satellite TV channel CGTN, broadcasting in English. «Ofcom» concluded, that the channel's editorial policy was controlled not by the media group, that owned the channel, but by the Communist Party of China. Thus, the channel violated the rules of the license, which does not give the right to transfer control over the editorial policy to another company, that is not stated in the license.

«Ofcom» said it had given the channel enough time to restructure it's operation under British law. The decision to revoke the license was made after «careful consideration». In addition, the regulator said, that it will soon complete an investigation into a possible violation of journalistic principles by the channel.

«The Telegraph» reported, that in recent years, British intelligence agencies have uncovered three alleged Chinese spies working under the cover of press. These people were forced to leave the UK.

In July 2019, the British regulator fined the Russian TV channel «RT» 223 thousand euros «for serious non-compliance with broadcasting rules» and ordered the channel to publish the findings of «Ofcom» live. As a result of the investigation, the regulator concluded, that the «RT» channel «failed to maintain proper impartiality» in seven news programs and issues dedicated to current events and published between March 17 and April 26, 2018.

As specified in «Ofcom», the broadcasts were mainly about controversial political topics and current state policy, namely, «the reaction of the British government to the events in Salisbury (the poisoning of Sergei Skripal) and the conflict in Syria.».