In the battle between the BBC and China

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“China takes its place on a very short list of countries besides North Korea and Iran that explicitly and totally blocked BBC News coverage,” Jamie Angus, the director of BBC World Service Group said on “Reliable Sources” Sunday.

China is not on that list, Angus said, adding: “Chinese people are very outward looking. They want to understand international news from around the world, but most importantly, they want to see their own country being reported by the BBC. . “

Angus told CNN Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter that it “is not acceptable for them to be completely banned from accessing BBC newscasts.”

In a statement, China’s NRTA claimed that BBC World News had broadcast reports about China that “violated the principles of truthfulness and impartiality in journalism.”

The BBC has highlighted the unrest in the country by reporting that women have been systematically raped, sexually assaulted and tortured in camps in the western region of Xinjiang. And the US State Department estimates that up to 2 million Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities have reportedly been placed in internment camps.

It is unclear how much impact the Chinese ban on BBC World News will have on mainland China, as the BBC has never been allowed to broadcast in mainland China or in Chinese homes. BBC World News was only available in international hotels.

China’s decision to ban the network could also be retaliation. At the beginning of February, British media regulators revoked the license of the Chinese state international news channel CGTN.

But some people in China are still trying to find ways to get around the ban. “Of course you always have access to BBC digital services with some kind of VPN configuration,” Angus told Stelter Sunday. But China is making that more difficult for people and access to BBC digital services in English and Mandarin has been increasingly blocked for the past 18 months.

“It’s so revealing when countries try to block real coverage, as is the case with the BBC in China,” said Stelter.

CNN’s Philip Wang and Jonny Hallam contributed to this report.

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