China Bans the BBC in Its Territory After Report of Rape, Abuse in Uighur Concentration Camps

China Bans the BBC in Its Territory After Report of Rape, Abuse in Uighur Concentration Camps

China banned the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) in its territory.

The move comes after the BBC published a report with allegations of rape, torture, and abuse in Uighur concentration camps in Xinjiang province.

However, China already restricts BBC viewership in the country. It only appears “in international hotels and some diplomatic compounds.”

Therefore, the majority of Chinese people do not have access to the BBC.

From the BBC:

In its decision, China’s State Film, TV and Radio Administration said BBC World News reports about China were found to “seriously violate” broadcast guidelines, including “the requirement that news should be truthful and fair” and not “harm China’s national interests”.

It said that the BBC’s application to air for another year would not be accepted.

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 BBC revoked China Global Television Network’s (CGTN) license:

Ofcom’s decision earlier this month came after it found that CGTN’s licence was wrongfully held by Star China Media Ltd.

CGTN was also found in breach of British broadcasting regulations last year, for airing the allegedly forced confession of UK citizen Peter Humphrey.

The Uighur Report

Tursunay Ziawudun, who spent nine months in a concentration camp in the Xinjiang region, said “men always wore masks” and suits. They’d select women after midnight to join them in the “black room,” which did not have surveillance cameras.

The men took Ziawudun and gang-raped her three times.

“Perhaps this is the most unforgettable scar on me forever,” she told the BBC. “I don’t even want these words to spill from my mouth.”

The Chinese detained Gulzira Auelkhan, a Kazakh woman, for 18 months within the system. She described how they forced her “to strip Uighur women naked and handcuff them.” She would then leave them in the room for Chinese men:

Afterwards, she cleaned the rooms, she said.

“My job was to remove their clothes above the waist and handcuff them so they cannot move,” said Gulzira Auelkhan, crossing her wrists behind her head to demonstrate. “Then I would leave the women in the room and a man would enter – some Chinese man from outside or policeman. I sat silently next to the door, and when the man left the room I took the woman for a shower.”

The Chinese men “would pay money to have their pick of the prettiest young inmates”, she said.

Some former detainees of the camps have described being forced to assist guards or face punishment. Auelkhan said she was powerless to resist or intervene.

Asked if there was a system of organised rape, she said: “Yes, rape.”

“They forced me to go into that room,” she said. “They forced me to take off those women’s clothes and to restrain their hands and leave the room.”

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