China bans BBC from broadcasting
Beijing: China has banned BBC World News from broadcasting in the country for seriously violating its guidelines for reporting, its television and radio regulator has announced.
The move comes a week after the UK revoked the license of Chinese state-owned broadcaster China Global Television Network's (CGTN).
China has criticised the BBC for its reporting on the deadly coronavirus pandemic and the persecution of ethnic minority Uighurs and lodged a protest with the British broadcaster.
The BBC said it was "disappointed" by China's decision to ban it.
The Chinese regulator, National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) has made the announcement on Thursday night on pulling BBC World News off the air in the country for serious content violation.
NRTA said BBC World News was found to have seriously violated regulations on radio and television management and on overseas satellite television channel management in its China-related reports, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The BBC coverage went against the requirements that news reporting must be true and impartial, and undermined China's national interests and ethnic solidarity, it said.
"As the channel fails to meet the requirements to broadcast in China as an overseas channel, BBC World News is not allowed to continue its service within Chinese territory. The NRTA will not accept the channel's broadcast application for the new year," NRTA said in a statement.
China's ban followed British media regulator Ofcom revoking state broadcaster CGTN licence to broadcast in the UK.
Ofcom's decision to revoke the license of CGTN came after it found that the Chinese state television licence was wrongfully held by Star China Media Ltd.
CGTN was also found in breach of British broadcasting regulations for airing the allegedly forced confession of UK citizen Peter Humphrey.
Reacting to China's ban the BBC said in a statement: 'We are disappointed that the Chinese authorities have decided to take this course of action. The BBC is the world's most trusted international news broadcaster and reports on stories from around the world fairly, impartially and without fear or favour."
The commercially-funded BBC World News TV channel broadcasts globally in English. In China it is largely restricted and appears only in international hotels and some diplomatic compounds, meaning most Chinese people cannot view it, the BBC report on China's ban said.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called the move an "unacceptable curtailing of media freedom".
The US State Department condemned the decision, calling it part of a wider campaign to suppress free media in China.
Relations between China and the UK have seen a serious deterioration in recent months over Hong Kong, where Beijing introduced a controversial new security law after a large pro-democracy movement swept the ex-colony.
In January the UK introduced a new visa that gives 5.4 million Hong Kong residents the right to live in the UK and eventually becomes citizens because it believes China is undermining the territory's rights and freedoms, the BBC report said.
China's tiff with BBC followed Beijing's spat last year with three US newspapers resulting in the expulsion of some journalists from those media outlets.
China has sharply criticised this month's BBC report featuring interviews with Uighur women who said they had been systematically raped, sexually abused and tortured in China's "re-education" camps in Xinjiang.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry slammed the report saying that it is biased. It also criticised BBC reports on China's COVID-19 pandemic response saying that stories go quite opposite to BBC's claims of impartial and honest coverage.
Last month the US said China has committed genocide in its repression of the Uighurs and other mainly Muslim groups.
According to estimates, more than a million Uighurs and other minorities have been detained in camps in China.
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Unemployed class 10 passouts in Bengal to get Rs 1,500 allowance from March 7: Mamata
Kolkata (PTI): Ahead of the assembly polls, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that from Saturday unemployed young job seekers, having passed secondary examination (class 10), will receive Rs 1,500 allowance every month to help them move towards a self-reliant future.
The TMC supremo made this announcement - on the eve of International Women’s Day on March 8 - during her speech at the sit-in against large-scale deletion of names of voters by the Election Commission during Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll exercise.
She said young men and women - aged 21–40 years - who have passed the secondary exams - will receive Rs 1,500 per month from March 7. Bannerjee said while the assistance was originally scheduled to begin in April, it will now start immediately.
"In the case of Yuva Sathi, all those who are still studying and are not beneficiaries of any schemes other than scholarships will receive the amount. We had earlier stated that the money would be given on April 1. But since tomorrow is International Women's Day, as a gift, we have changed the payment date from April 1 to today (March 7)," she said.
All those aged between 21 and 40 years, numbering around 1 crore people, have applied for this scheme, she said, pointing out these are people who are not beneficiaries of any other schemes except scholarships.
Claiming that her government has generated employment opportunities to a great extent, Banerjee said, "The unemployment rate in Bengal has decreased by 40 per cent. We have provided skill training to at least 40 lakh people, out of which around 10 lakh are already employed.
"This has also happened because we have linked the websites of industrialists with those who have received skill training through Utkarsha Bangla. If migrant workers are interested, they will also be given opportunities. Recently, I heard that around 10,000 people are being trained in the jute industry, and they will also be absorbed into jobs," she said.
The CM said the state is giving Rs 10,000 to farmers every month.
"Even those with just one cottah of land used to receive Rs 4,000 earlier. Now we have also announced Rs 4,000 for landless farmers," she said.
Banerjee said in Bengal, six economic corridors are being constructed to connect the entire state.
"Apart from that, two power plants of 1,600 megawatts (800 megawatts each) are being built in Salboni. We are also number one in IT. More people are employed here than in Bengaluru. Around 200 new companies have also come here.
"Those who defame the state should know that we are number one in small and medium-scale industries. Around 1.5 crore people work in small-scale industries. Units from across the country have come here. In Bengal's leather hub in Bantala, at least 7.5 lakh people work there. Our self-help group women are doing really well. We have created around 12 lakh self-help groups," she said.
Banerjee said around one lakh people will be employed in the large coal reserve in Deucha Pachami in Birbhum district and for the next 100 years, there will be no power cuts in the state.
Bengal's GSDP is the highest even after "repaying Rs 6 lakh crore of debt and paying interest on it and despite Rs 2 lakh crore of central funds still pending," the CM said.
"From GSDP to revenue generation, we are the highest," she claimed.
