CGTN (formerly known as CCTV-9 and CCTV News) is a state-run English-language news channel based in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It is one of six channels provided by

China Global Television Network China Global Television Network (CGTN) is the international division of state media outlet China Central Television (CCTV), headquartered in Beijing, China. CGTN broadcasts six news and general interest channels in five languages. CGTN is r ...

, owned by the Chinese

state broadcaster State media or government media are media outlets that are under financial and/or editorial control of the state or government, directly or indirectly. There are different types of state and government media. State-controlled or state-run media a ...

China Central Television China Central Television (CCTV) is a Chinese state- and political party-owned broadcaster controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Its 50 different channels broadcast a variety of programing to more than one billion viewers in six lan ...

(CCTV), under the control of the

Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party The Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, also known as the Propaganda Department or Central Propaganda Department, is an internal division of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in charge of spreading C ...

. CCTV-9 was launched on 25 September 2000, rebranded as CCTV News on 26 April 2010. On 6 February 2012, CGTN America was launched, with a schedule of daily programming originating from a production center in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

On 11 January 2012, CCTV Africa was launched in

Nairobi, Kenya Nairobi ( ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows throug ...

. All channels and divisions in the CCTV International group were rebranded as CGTN on 31 December 2016. CGTN currently has four studios: Beijing (headquarters), Nairobi, Washington and London as well as 70 bureaus around the world.

History

CCTV began considering English-language international news programming on 1 January 1979, at the start of China's " Reform and opening up" period. English news bulletins began on CCTV-2 in 1986 and became available to overseas viewers when they moved to CCTV-4 in February 1991. CCTV-9 began broadcasting across China on 25 September 2000, becoming the country's first all-English television station. On 1 January 2003, CCTV-9 entered the United States cable market, as part of a deal that allowed

AOL AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo (2017� ...

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

, and News Corporation access to cable systems in

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

. In its early years, CCTV-9 broadcast English language news bulletins and cultural interest shows for most of each day, and aired mostly

rerun A rerun or repeat is a rebroadcast of an episode of a radio or television program. There are two types of reruns – those that occur during a hiatus, and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Variations In the United Kingdom, the word ...

s during the overnight hours in China. One of its biggest projects was covering the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

. Until 26 April 2010, CCTV-9 was a mixed general interest channel featuring news, travel programming, and language training. On that date it was rebranded as CCTV News, a 24-hour English-language news service.

Relaunch

The channel name of CCTV-9 was changed to CCTV News on 26 April 2010. Some shows were rebranded while other new programs were added. The English website is managed by

China Network Television China Network Television (CNTV; ) was a Chinese state-owned national web-based TV broadcaster of China Central Television that was launched on December 28, 2009. CNTV International offered 6 local language services (Chinese, Mongolian in Mong ...

(CNTV), a web streaming service of CCTV. On 1 January 2011, the channel's former name CCTV-9 was taken over by CCTV's two documentary channels. With new faces, new studios, and new equipment, the channel's upper managers said they hoped to strengthen the network's news gathering abilities, while aiming to present more perspectives from throughout China, and across Asia, to the rest of the world.

CGTN

On 31 December 2016, the channel was rebranded again as CGTN, and new programs debuted, with the first being ''Global Watch'', anchored by Rachael Ruble. In 2018, Kong Linlin, a CGTN reporter, verbally accosted a panel at the Conservative Party Conference and accused them, among other things, of being "fake Chinese". After being asked to leave, she assaulted an attendee and was subsequently ejected by police.

Ofcom license revocation

On 4 February 2021,

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

withdrew CGTN's UK broadcaster license. Ofcom concluded a company called Star China Media Limited held the broadcast license for CGTN but "did not have editorial responsibility", and thus it did not meet legal requirements. The programming is claimed to be controlled by a company called China Global Television Network Corporation. The regulator said it was unable to transfer the license to that company because it is "ultimately controlled by the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

, which is not permitted under UK broadcasting law". In most of Europe, distribution of the CGTN channel was permitted because it held a UK license, and unless CGTN obtained a license in another European country it had to go off air across most of Europe. The channel eventually obtained a new license through the French broadcast regulator

CSA CSA may refer to: Arts and media * Canadian Screen Awards, annual awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television * Commission on Superhuman Activities, a fictional American government agency in Marvel Comics * Crime Syndicate of Amer ...

in March 2021. In response to the Ofcom revocation, China banned

BBC World News BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and S ...

from airing in

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

, which was soon followed upon by RTHK withdrawing distribution of BBC's content in Hong Kong.

CGTN Africa

CGTN Africa is CGTN's African news productions center which was launched in Kenya on 11 January 2012. CGTN Africa produces daily news, business and culture shows, including Africa Live, Talk Africa, Global Business Africa and Faces of Africa, which are broadcast through CGTN's English news channel.

CGTN America

CGTN America is the Americas division of CGTN that began broadcasting on 6 February 2012. It is based in

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

and runs bureaus in North and South America. The service employs American and Chinese journalists and produces Americas-based programs for CGTN and CCTV. The

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

ordered CGTN America to register as a foreign agent under the

Foreign Agent Registration Act The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)2 U.S.C. § 611 ''et seq.'' is a United States law that imposes Public disclosure of private facts, public disclosure obligations on Foreign agent, persons representing foreign interests.Chiswick Business Park in west

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. CGTN first moved into the office in January 2018 and planned to begin broadcasts by the end of the year, although issues which included "obtaining visas for top managers and setting up technology" eventually delayed its launch to October 2019. Despite Ofcom's revocation of CGTN's broadcast license, a person briefed on the channel's strategy said it "would not impact the production centre,

GTN GTN may refer to: * Gas Transmission Northwest * Gdańsk Scientific Society (Polish: ') * Genesis Television Network, in Cedar Hill, Texas * Gestational trophoblastic neoplasia * Glentanner Aerodrome, in New Zealand * Global Traffic Network, a traf ...

would just need to reorientate itself to produce more content for Europe."

Foreign news anchors

In addition to Chinese anchors, CGTN employs foreigners as

news presenters A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

, some of whom have extensive experience, such as Edwin Maher (a former newsreader and weatherman from the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

), while others may be recent university graduates just embarking upon their careers. Former comptroller

Jiang Heping Senior Editor Jiang Heping () is a prominent executive at China Central Television (CCTV), the state broadcaster of the People's Republic of China. He is responsible for sport coverage in his roles as Executive Director of the CCTV Sports Program ...

defended the policy of putting foreigners on air, arguing that "we feel international on-air personalities boost the credibility of CGTN and befit its image as an international channel. In this regard, CGTN will not restrict the origin of its employees and choose to build its unique identity through its programming." The first foreign news anchor on what was then known as CCTV-9 was Chris Gelken, who joined the channel from

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

's TVB and presented the 30-minute business show, ''BizChina.'' Gelken left CCTV News in 2005, and returned to TVB from 2010 to 2013. Another prominent personality in CCTV-9's first decade was

Mark Rowswell Mark Henry Rowswell, CM (born May 23, 1965), better known by his Chinese stage name Dashan (), is a Canadian comedian and television personality popular in China. Relatively unknown in the West, from the late 1980s through the early 2000s Dash ...

, otherwise known as

Dashan Mark Henry Rowswell, CM (born May 23, 1965), better known by his Chinese stage name Dashan (), is a Canadian comedian and television personality popular in China. Relatively unknown in the West, from the late 1980s through the early 2000s Dash ...

. He hosted ''Travel in Chinese'' on CCTV News and has been honored for his work in promoting cancer awareness in China. In addition to those individuals, the channel later recruited Phillip Yin of

Bloomberg Television Bloomberg Television (on-air as Bloomberg) is an American-based pay television network focusing on business and capital market programming, owned by Bloomberg L.P. It is distributed globally, reaching over 310 million homes worldwide. It is head ...

, and Mike Walter from ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'', to helm Biz Asia America and The Heat, respectively, when the Washington bureau opened in 2012. In 2016, Rachelle Akuffo took over from Phillip Yin as the anchor of Biz Asia America, which was then rebranded as Global Business America. On 18 September 2019,

Nick Pollard George Nicholas Pollard (born 15 November 1950) is a British journalist and the former head of Sky News. Early life and education Pollard was born in Birkenhead and educated at Birkenhead School, an independent school in the town. Career in jour ...

, a veteran British TV executive, resigned from his post as consultant and advisor to CGTN, giving his reason for leaving as being CGTN's failure to comply with Ofcom's rules on impartiality in connection to its coverage of the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. He had joined CGTN in December 2018.

Detention of Cheng Lei

In mid-August 2020, Cheng Lei, an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n journalist who since 2012 worked for CGTN as an anchor for a business show, was detained by Chinese authorities and charged in February 2021 with sharing state secrets, with no further information being provided. Soon after Cheng was detained, two Australian journalists working in China fled the country after being questioned by authorities on national security grounds, leaving Australia's media without any journalists working in China for the first time in nearly 50 years. CGTN has deleted all reference to Cheng from its website and social media, and has not made any report or comment on Cheng's detention.

Awards

The channel's Washington, DC based broadcast center, CGTN America, has won a News & Documentary

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for ''Jen Bricker: When Can't is a Four-Letter Word'', as well as multiple New York Festivals medals and White House News Photographers Association awards.

Criticism

Bias and censorship

Observers have noted that the "aim

f CGTN F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. His ...

is to influence public opinion overseas in order to nudge foreign governments into making policies favourable towards China’s Communist party" through subtle means. Researchers Thomas Fearon and Usha M. Rodrigues argued that CGTN has a "dichotomous role as a credible media competing for audience attention on the world stage, and a vital government propaganda organ domestically." According to James Palmer at ''

Foreign Policy A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...

'', the contrasting aims of RT (formerly Russia Today) and CGTN, "mirrors wider strategies: Moscow wants chaos it can exploit, while Beijing wants a stable world order—on its terms". While RT doesn't mind whether it goes to the far-left or the far-right, Chinese state media is permitted to "act from a very narrow, officially approved scope, and the risk of the political extremes is too much," according to journalist Hilton Yip. On the contrary to CGTN's investments in studios and numerous overseas bureaus, "the actual content is a mix of brutally tedious propaganda and bland documentaries. The audience is always the bosses in Beijing, not the average viewer overseas". Yip also noted the growing disillusionment of journalists in China who "are allowed to do little more than parrot the official line", citing a viral video of a journalist rolling her eyes at another reporter's softball question during a ministerial press conference, which "seemed to speak for many in the country who are tired of the charade that local media has become". Despite a decade of overseas expansion, the redoubling of efforts by CGTN, and to an extension other state media, to push the party's theories and principles abroad is at odds with boosting China's overseas image. CGTN, along with other Chinese state media outlets, is still widely regarded as "editorially biased and full of propaganda, and they still struggle to attract large audiences", particularly in the age of widespread internet use with social media and nontraditional forms of media where the public has become "more averse to clumsy state-run propaganda than ever". Despite its revamp launching of CCTV America, critics have voiced concerns over the level of censorship exercised by the channel, especially on sensitive domestic issues in China. Philip Cunningham of Cornell University, who has appeared more than 100 times on China Central Television talk shows, noted that sensitive issues such as Tibet and Xinjiang were heavily edited on various programs. Ma Jing, Director of CCTV America defends the channel against such allegations by saying that the channel edits stories the same way other news organizations do. She said: "We uphold the traditional journalistic values. We consider accuracy, objectivity, truthfulness, and public accountability very important, more important than anything else." In March 2021, CGTN was fined £225,000 by

for bias in its coverage of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, which was found to have repeatedly breached fairness and impartiality requirements.

Accessory to torture and forced confessions

On 23 November 2018, a British corporate investigator named Peter Humphrey submitted a formal complaint to the United Kingdom's government communications regulator The Office of Communications, or Ofcom, maintaining he was forced under duress to confess on air over Chinese state broadcaster China Central Television's (CCTV) network and that, as the confession was subsequently broadcast over the international arm of CCTV, China Global Television Network (CGTN), CGTN itself should be held culpable by Ofcom and denied the right to operate its broadcast service in the U.K. Humphrey's complaint cited two films produced by CCTV and additionally aired in the UK by CGTN, stating that both were scripted and directed by the Chinese police, the

public security bureau A Public Security Bureau (PSB) () of a city or county, or Public Security Department (PSD) () of a province or autonomous region, in the People's Republic of China refers to a government office essentially acting as a police station or a local ...

, while he was a prisoner, in conditions of duress amounting to

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

. One such confession, staged in August 2013, was filmed by a CCTV crew with Humphrey locked in an iron chair inside a steel cage, wearing handcuffs and an orange prison vest. This was before he had been indicted, tried or convicted of a crime. The second, in July 2014, was once again filmed by CCTV, not in a cage this time, but still in a prison vest and handcuffs, before he had been tried or convicted on the charge of illegal information gathering. Ofcom said it would investigate the complaint and would "take necessary enforcement action" if rules are determined to have been violated. In November 2019, CGTN aired a video of a UK consular employee,

Simon Cheng Simon Cheng Man-kit (; born 10 October 1990) is a Hong Kong activist. He was formerly a trade and investment officer at the British Consulate-General, Hong Kong, British Consulate-General in Hong Kong. Cheng was detained by Chinese authorities ...

, in captivity "confessing" to consorting with prostitutes. Within a week, Cheng had filed a new complaint to Ofcom. On 8 March 2021, CGTN was fined a total of £225,000 by Ofcom for serious breaches of fairness, privacy and impartiality rules. “We found the individuals (

and Gui Minhai) concerned were unfairly treated and had their privacy unwarrantably infringed,” Ofcom said, adding that the broadcaster had “failed to obtain their informed consent to be interviewed.” It concluded that “material facts which cast serious doubt on the reliability of their alleged confessions” had been left out of its programing, which aired pretrial “confessions” of the two men while they were being detained. Ofcom said it was considering further sanctions. On 4 February 2021, CGTN had its license to broadcast in the United Kingdom revoked by broadcasting regulator

after an investigation found that its license was held by

Star China Media Star China Media () is a Chinese media company currently owned by China Media Capital. The company operates television channels Xing Kong and Channel V Mainland China, and maintains Fortune Star film library. Its businesses were previously a p ...

, which exercised no editorial oversight over CGTN. Ofcom subsequently imposed fines on CGTN. An open letter calling for Ofcom to reverse its revocation decision was signed by the editor of the left-wing ''

Morning Star Morning Star, morning star, or Morningstar may refer to: Astronomy * Morning star, most commonly used as a name for the planet Venus when it appears in the east before sunrise ** See also Venus in culture * Morning star, a name for the star Siri ...

'',

Ben Chacko Ben Patrick Chacko (born 1984) is an English journalist who is the editor of the '' Morning Star''. After joining the newspaper in 2010, he became editor in 2015. Early life Chacko was born in Camden, London. He was brought up in Cheltenham, ...

, along with journalists

John Pilger John Richard Pilger (; born 9 October 1939) is an Australian journalist, writer, scholar, and documentary filmmaker. He has been mainly based in Britain since 1962. He was also once visiting professor at Cornell University in New York. Pilger ...

Jonathan Cook Jonathan Cook (born 1965) is a British writer and a freelance journalist based in Nazareth, Israel, who writes about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He writes a regular column for '' The National'' of Abu Dhabi and Middle East Eye. Backgro ...

and

Kerry-Anne Mendoza Kerry-Anne Mendoza (born 13 June 1981) is an English writer, journalist and social commentator. She is the former editor-in-chief of ''The Canary'', a left-wing new media outlet. Early life and education Mendoza was brought up in Kingswood, n ...

, film directors

Oliver Stone William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Stone won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as writer of '' Midnight Express'' (1978), and wrote the gangster film remake '' Sc ...

and Ken Loach, rapper and activist Lowkey, and writer and activist Tariq Ali. In March 2021, Australian public broadcaster

Special Broadcasting Service The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an Australian hybrid-funded public service broadcaster. About 80 percent of funding for the company is derived from the Australian Government. SBS operates six TV channels ( SBS, SBS Viceland, SBS World ...

suspended news bulletin broadcasts from CGTN and CCTV due to complaints of forced confessions.

Accusation of antisemitism

In May 2021, Israel's embassy in Beijing accused CGTN of "blatant antisemitism" when it broadcast an

antisemitic canard Antisemitic tropes, canards, or myths are " sensational reports, misrepresentations, or fabrications" that are defamatory towards Judaism as a religion or defamatory towards Jews as an ethnic or religious group. Since the Middle Ages, such repo ...

during the

2021 Israel–Palestine crisis A major outbreak of violence in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict commenced on 10 May 2021, though disturbances took place earlier, and continued until a ceasefire came into effect on 21 May. It was marked by protests and police riot ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:CGTN World China Global Television Network channels International broadcasters 24-hour television news channels in China English-language television stations Foreign television channels broadcasting in the United Kingdom Television channels in the Netherlands Television channels in Belgium Television channels in Flanders Television channels and stations established in 1997 1997 establishments in China