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Comment by mytailorisrich | Hacker News Reader

You're ignoring the point. The UK's move is political (the same applies to RT). Obviously they are not going to say it and only state that Ofcom is following the rules.

The Chinese have replied in kind, tit-for-tat is pretty standard procedure.

The BBC has an "editorial line" as well. Obviously it's more subtle and they are mostly neutral enough most of the time but let's not be naive. It's good to have multiple sources and not to trust the BBC blindly. If all we have is the BBC then we never hear the Chinese side of things fully, for example.

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> The UK's move is political

It's the same regulations for everyone. There's no mystery to it.

> Obviously they are not going to say it and only state that Ofcom is following the rules

Can you show that Ofcom hasn't followed the rules?

> It's the same regulations for everyone. There's no mystery to it.

That's either naive or disingenuous.

CCTV News / CGTN has had a licence for years. Suddenly Ofcom finds that it is in the name of the wrong company and that they cannot transfer it to the correct company because that company ultimately reports to the Chinese Communist Party.

Anyone can make their own conclusions but to me it seems quite obvious that there has been a conscious decision to act against CGTN now.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong but, again, let's not be naive about things.

So you can't show that Ofcom has acted improperly.

> Suddenly Ofcom finds

It wasn't sudden at all. CGTN was given plenty of opportunity to maintain its licence. CGTN chose not to.

Who ever suggested that they acted improperly?

After years they have decided to very zealously apply the rules and I'm sure that this has nothing to do with the current political climate between the UK and China since Ofcom is independent... There.

Too bad that no discussion is apparently possible on these issues and the reality of politics.

I don't think you quite get how Ofcom works.

Ofcom received a complaint in Feb 2020[1] which it investigated -- taking a year to reach this conclusion is not 'sudden'.

The request to transfer the licence to another entity didn't supply all the required information for the transfer[2].

Ofcom operates with a bias against meddling[3] -- you've got to try quite hard to get them riled but not complying with broadcasting law is definitiely one way to do it.

[1] https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0025/212884/...

[2] https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/media-rele...

[3] https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/policies-and-guidelines

I do get how Ofcom works.

On the other hand, you do not get my point. There is always more than following the rules like a computer program does. There is always politics involved, not least when foreign relations are involved, it's very naive not to realise that.

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