China calls on UK's comms watchdog to revoke CGTN fine

China on Tuesday urged British regulators to revoke the decision to fine CGTN, China's English-language satellite news channel.

Communications watchdog Ofcom imposed a 225,000 pound ($312,000) fine on the Chinese broadcaster on Monday, citing the channel's airing of a forced confession and programs about Hong Kong which failed to live up to impartiality standards.

China "resolutely" opposes the watchdog's "repeated efforts to impose artificial obstacles to the normal news reporting of Chinese media in the UK," foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said.

He called on Ofcom to "investigate and deal with certain British outlets' long-standing false reports that misrepresent China and Hong Kong."

The financial penalty against CGTN was imposed a month after regulators stripped its broadcasting license in the UK.

During the news conference, Zhao also expressed his support for a lawsuit filed against German scholar Adrian Zenz, who has been criticised by China over his reports on the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

In the suit, a group of businesses and individuals in the region are demanding that Zenz apologise and compensate their losses, local media reported.

Zhao also urged countries to "cooperate with WHO, as China has done, to investigate laboratories that have the potential to trigger COVID-19 outbreaks."

China has repeatedly called for an investigation into the Fort Detrick biological weapons lab in the US state of Maryland, amid attempts to to sow doubts about Western vaccines and the origin of the coronavirus.