CGTN broadcast the confession of Peter Humphrey, a British private investigator who was imprisoned in China in 2013 and accused of illegally obtaining and selling Chinese citizens’ data.
Mr. Humphrey, who has since been released, said he had been drugged, chained to a chair, locked in a cage and then made to read out a statement written by the police in front of the cameras. The anchor who presented the footage, James Chau, is now a goodwill ambassador with the World Health Organization. He declined to comment.
The news organization “collaborates with the security and police organs to extract forced confessions from prisoners under extreme conditions of duress,” Mr. Humphrey said, adding that the confession was packaged to “distort reality, intrude on privacy and fairness, and humiliate me.”
Chinese leaders get different treatment, said three current or former employees. During a 2014 visit by Mr. Xi to Greece, a clip that showed him getting off the plane with unruly hair was eradicated from broadcasts, one current employee said.
One CGTN America show, “The Heat,” is occasionally edited if it is too critical of China, two of the people said.
“CGTN wouldn’t exist or have any significant funding if it weren’t for the Chinese government,” said Sarah Cook, a senior analyst for East Asia at Freedom House, a pro-democracy research group in the United States. “And of course that comes with editorial strings attached.”
The Chinese government’s power over CGTN was underscored by a 2016 event at state media facilities in Beijing in which Mr. Xi said official media and publicity broadly were “crucial for the party’s path.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/business/cctv-china-usa-propaganda.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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