Australian broadcaster suspends China's CGTN

Australian broadcaster SBS said it was suspending the broadcast of Chinese TV news services CGTN and CCTV after receiving a human rights complaint.

Emer McCarthy reports.

Australian broadcaster SBS said it was suspending the broadcast of Chinese TV news services CGTN and CCTV after receiving a human rights complaint.

An SBS spokesman told Reuters that programmes would not air on Saturday (March 6) and that SBS was reviewing a complaint from a human rights organization.

A 15-minute CGTN English news service and 30-minute CCTV Mandarin language service had been part of SBS programming.

A story on the SBS News website said human rights organization Safeguard Defenders wrote to SBS after Britain's media regulator revoked the licence of CGTN due to "serious non-compliance offences".

SBS reported the letter from Safeguard Defenders as saying the CCTV broadcasts; "Involved the extraction, packaging and airing of forced and false confessions of prisoners held under conditions of duress and torture." China's foreign ministry in Beijing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SBS is a public service broadcaster, providing news and entertainment programming on radio and television in multiple languages with a focus on multicultural issues.