China's state TV under pressure as 'victims of forced confessions' call for ban: Report

About thirteen people who call themselves “victims of forced confessions broadcast on Chinese television” have urged the European satellite operator, Eutelsat, to take Chinese state media channels - CCTV4 and CGTN - off the air. According to Hong Kong-based media outlet, Apple Daily, in a letter published by human rights watchdog Safeguard Defenders, the “victims” accused China of violating human rights to extort confessions from them and denying their right to a fair trial. The signatories also included Simon Cheng, a former employee of the British Consulate in Hong Kong, who was detained on a trip to China and physically tortured and forced to record two video confessions for “betrayal” of the motherland and “soliciting prostitution” respectively. 

In the letter, the group reportedly urged Eutelsat to determine whether television providers in democratic societies ought to continue to be morally complicit in the broadcast of information that is intentionally twisted and obtained through torture. The “victims” said that they are only a dozen that have been able to speak out as others are still in prison or have been “executed”. They added that they have no way of demanding reparations and the only way to stop this is for television regulators to investigate and take measures. 

It is worth mentioning that the signatories included Chinese human rights lawyers, Bao Lungjun and Jiang Tianyong and Peter Dahlin, who is a Swedish activist and a co-founder of the organization. Activist Angela Gui also signed on behalf of her father, Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai, who was sentenced to a decade in jail last year for “illegally providing intelligence overseas”. 

CGTN under pressure in France 

Further, the letter noted that Australian public broadcaster SBS stopped using content from the Chinese state-run television in March pending a review of human rights concerns. It also said that the UK also fined CGTN for partiality and violation of privacy and removed it from the airwaves, a ban that pushed the channel to set up shop in France. 

French audiovisual regulator CSA, on the other hand, determined in March that CGTN met the technical criteria necessary for broadcasting but just this week Safeguard Defenders submitted two complaints against the channel. The complaints have been filed on behalf of German scholar Adrian Zenz, a critic who became a victim of a Chinese smear campaign, and Uighur activist Mamutjan Abudurehim last week.

(Image: Twitter/AP)