British watchdog Ofcom investigates China Central Television for airing ‘forced confession’ by GlaxoSmithKline investigator Peter Humphrey
- Briton says footage broadcast by CCTV via international subsidiary China Global Television Network prejudiced subsequent trial against him
- Humphrey and his wife, Yu Yingzeng, were sentenced in China in 2014 for illegally obtaining and selling Chinese citizens’ private records
Britain’s broadcasting watchdog has launched a formal investigation into whether a confession made by a British man and aired on China’s state broadcaster broke UK broadcasting rules when shown there.
The investigation relates to a complaint made by Briton Peter Humphrey and his American wife, Yu Yingzeng, who were both sentenced in China in 2014 for illegally obtaining private records of Chinese citizens and selling the information to clients including drug maker GlaxoSmithKline.
Humphrey says China Central Television, which broadcast the footage via its international subsidiary China Global Television Network (CGTN), may have breached Britain’s fairness rules by distributing what he said was a forced confession that prejudiced a subsequent trial against him.
“We have decided to investigate a fairness and privacy complaint about news programmes broadcast on CCTV News,” a spokesperson for Ofcom said.
“If we find our rules have been broken, we will take the appropriate action,” the person said, declining to comment further.
