China & BBC Think tanks says Chinese Communist Party engages in coordinated information effort to discredit the BBC
A defence and strategic policy think tank has said Chinese Communist Party (CCP) diplomatic accounts, Chinese state media, pro-CCP influencers and patriotic trolls are targeting the UK public broadcaster, the BBC, in a coordinated information operation.
In a piece published in Australian Strategic Policy Institute, researchers Albert Zhang and Jacob Wallis said: "Recent BBC reports, including the allegations of systematic sexual assault in Xinjiang’s internment camps, were among a number of triggers provoking the CCP’s propaganda apparatus to discredit the BBC, distract international attention and recapture control of the narrative."
"In addition, the report analyses some of the secondary effects of this propaganda effort by exploring the mobilisation of a pro-CCP Twitter network that has previously amplified the Covid-19 disinformation content being pushed by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and whose negative online engagement with the BBC peaks on the same days as that of the party-state’s diplomats and state media," read the report.
"To contest and blunt criticism of the CCP’s systematic surveillance and control of minority ethnic groups, the party will continue to aggressively deploy its propaganda and disinformation apparatus. Domestic control remains fundamental to its political power and legitimacy, and internationally narrative control is fundamental to the pursuit of its foreign policy interests," it said.
The Chinese government's television and radio regulator announced last month that it is banning the BBC World News from broadcasting in the country, with immediate effect.
The reason behind this banning had been the BBCs reporting about China with regards to the coronavirus pandemic and the persecution of the Uighurs ,the ethnic Muslim minority, by the Chinese authorities, the BBC had reported.
The BBC said it was "disappointed" by this decision of the Chinese government.
This move by the Chinese government follows British media regulator Ofcom revoking state broadcaster China Global Television Network's (CGTN) licence to broadcast in the UK.
Ofcom's decision, which was announced earlier this month, came after it found that CGTN's licence was wrongfully held by Star China Media Ltd.
CGTN was also found in breach of British broadcasting regulations last year, for airing the allegedly forced confession of UK citizen Peter Humphrey.
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