Sydney | Australian television group SBS announced Friday it was suspending the broadcasting of programs from Chinese state channels after being seized by a human rights organization.
SBS indicated that, according to the organization Safeguard Defenders, CGTN and CCTV broadcast as part of the incriminated programs at least 56 confessions of prisoners obtained under duress and torture between 2013 and 2020.
“SBS has received a complaint that it is currently reviewing,” a spokesperson for the broadcaster said.
“In view of the serious concerns it raises and the complexity of the subject concerned, we have taken the decision to suspend the distribution of the CGTN and CCTV news newspapers while we carry out an evaluation of these services” , said the SBS group, which is subsidized by the Australian government.
The Australian channel broadcasts two daily news programs, one 15 minutes and the other 30, from these two channels. One is in Mandarin and the other in English.
The move comes a month after the British communications regulator, Ofcom, withdrew the license for the Chinese television channel CGTN, considering that it was in fact subject to the Chinese Communist Party.
The announcement could deal yet another blow to relations between Beijing and Canberra, which are at their lowest in decades.