Ofcom rules Chinese network violated UK laws after airing forced confession

China’s state television channel is responsible for “serious” violations of British broadcasting rules by airing the forced confession of a UK citizen, and now faces sanctions, broadcast regulator Ofcom has decided.

Ofcom has put CGTN “on notice” that it intends to impose a punishment, which could include fines or cancelling its license, following a final decision that cannot be appealed.

The regulator’s move could escalate diplomatic tensions between the UK and China at a time Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been urged by MPs to rethink bilateral relations. Mr Johnson is expected to begin scaling back use of Chinese telecoms Huawei’s equipment in the UK’s 5G networks over security concerns, another point of contention between London and Beijing.

The Ofcom investigation, launched May 2019, focused on CGTN’s airing of a ‘confession’ extracted by Chinese authorities from Briton Peter Humphrey, who was detained along with his American wife for nearly two years.

Ofcom found the relevant broadcasts violated rules on unjust and unfair treatment, and unwarranted infringement of privacy, as they had “the potential materially and adversely to affect viewer’s perception of him.”

The footage included would have led viewers to believe Mr Humphrey was “confessing to an offence” and “making a genuine, voluntary statement,” with comments made about him “framed as statements of fact, rather than allegations.” CGTN also did not provide him with an opportunity to respond to the allegations of wrongdoing, Ofcom said.

The fact “Mr Humphrey was confessing to offences in advance of trial and in the presence of those holding him in custody was sufficient to create substantial doubt as to whether his consent was genuine and informed,” reads the decision.

“I’m delighted that Ofcom has reached the right decision about the abusive practices of Chinese state television. These abuses were of a very barbaric nature,” Mr Humphrey told the Telegraph.

“Unfortunately the practice of extracting and broadcasting forced confessions still continues, but hopefully my case will put Beijing on notice that this practice has to end.”

Ofcom also found that CGTN didn’t obtain informed consent from Mr Humphrey regarding how the material would be used.

CGTN, however, argued that his previous role as a journalist was enough to indicate he understood the situation. It also provided as evidence of informed consent a note provided to them by the Chinese ministry of public security, which had invited CGTN and other state media, to interview Mr Humphrey.

That note, allegedly from Mr Humphrey, said: “I agree to meet Chinese journalists for an interview... I have been told by the PSB [Public Security Bureau] that the purpose of this interview is to obtain an outcome of our case which will be favourable and lenient.”

“CGTN’s possession of a classified police document shows without a doubt the collusion between the Chinese broadcaster and the country’s police,” said Peter Dahlin, director of Safeguard Defenders, a human rights NGO that has filed complaints to Ofcom.

“CGTN knew the forced circumstances of Humphrey’s so-called confession and helped extract and then broadcast it anyway,” said Mr Dahlin, an Swedish citizen whose own forced confession in China was aired in 2016.

Mr Humphrey and his wife were both detained in 2013 in relation to a bribery case involving drug giant GlaxoSmithKline in China, during which he recounted squalid conditions and being drugged, handcuffed and locked into an iron chair in a steel cage while forced to ‘confess.’

He continues to suffer from cancer and PTSD as “a direct consequence of the abuse I received at the hands of the Chinese authorities during two years of captivity when they denied me access to medical treatment as a means to pressure me to sign a false confession.”

There was no “real evidence of criminal activity” and instead was driven by “people who manipulated the law to throw me and my wife in prison,” he said.

It’s unclear how China will react to the regulator’s announcement. Over the past year, Beijing has expelled 18 journalists from American outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, after Washington placed restrictions on CGTN and other Chinese state media outlets in the US.

Ofcom has other ongoing investigations into CGTN’s broadcast of forced confessions from Swedish citizen Gui Minhai, who published books about Chinese leaders, and former British consulate worker in Hong Kong Simon Cheng Man-kit.

Mr Gui first vanished five years ago while on holiday in Thailand before surfacing in China, ‘confessing’ on a state broadcast to a fatal drunk-driving accident in 2003 and for smuggling illegal books.

In February, he was sentenced in a secretive trial to ten years in prison for “providing intelligence” to foreign entities. His daughter, Angela Gui, who studies at the University of Cambridge, filed a complaint to Ofcom in November 2018.

Mr Cheng filed a complaint last year after being forced to ‘confess’ to soliciting prostitution – used later to justify a 15-day disappearance in August 2019, during which he said he was tortured, beaten and interrogated by Chinese secret police about Britain’s role in pro-democracy protests roiling Hong Kong.

Mr Cheng, a Hong Kong citizen, has since been granted political asylum in the UK.

In May, Ofcom found CGTN in “serious failure of compliance” by presenting biased coverage of the pro-democracy protests that swept Hong Kong last year. The regulator said it was considering sanctions.

Chinese state broadcaster CGTN, which airs globally, is available in the UK as a separate channel, as well as on Sky and Freesat.