Following the withdrawal of the broadcasting license of Chinese state-owned foreign broadcaster CGTN in the UK, cable operators and media regulators are clarifying possible repercussions in Germany. The cable network operator Vodafone has paused the broadcast of CGTN in this country for several days.
A company spokesman told dpa on Friday: "We are currently in an exchange with the state media authorities and those responsible for the broadcaster due to the license revocation, in order to clarify the legal situation." First, the trade briefing newsletter "China.Table" reported about this.
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Vodafone has so far broadcast the CGTN channel exclusively in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Baden-Wurttemberg. The spokesman further stated: "We have decided to pause the broadcast of the program content for the time being and hope that we will be able to resume the broadcast again soon. On the program site, we have put up a freeze frame for the time being."
The state media authorities said that they are in contact with network operators to determine whether a valid license exists as a prerequisite for retransmission of the program. "If a network operator wants to retransmit CGTN’s program, it must prove that it has a valid license, otherwise the basis for cable retransmission no longer applies." A week ago, the British media regulator Ofcom had justified the ban of CGTN in the UK on the grounds of lack of independence. Now it became known that China in return stopped the broadcast of the British foreign channel BBC World News on Friday.