Commentary by Xinhua writer Jiang Li
BEIJING - The most fundamental principle of news coverage is objectivity and facts-based reporting, but the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has degenerated into a factory of fake news on China.
BBC's slogan is "Putting News First." Yet for quite some time, whenever it comes to reporting about China, it seems to be always putting fake news first. By doing so, BBC deserves to be banned by the Chinese authorities in the country for serious content violation.
In its latest bids to distort truth about China, the biased British broadcaster simply coined up some sensational stories alleging "systematic" abuses of Uygur women in Xinjiang, and tried to cook up so-called "human-rights violations" in the city of Wuhan with a video of an anti-terrorism drill.
For the BBC, working on China news is like writing novels or shooting films. For its producers and field reporters, facts do not matter while their pre-set opinions do rule their storylines.
To prop up their presumptions, they tend to give interviewees misleading questions, twist answers and apply special video-editing or shooting techniques. None of those moves are qualified for producing facts-based news products in accordance with real journalistic standards.
Still, the BBC refuses to apologize for producing fake news on China, and insists on branding itself as unbiased. What a shame!
BBC's rumor-mongering against China is a clear demonstration of both arrogance and ideological prejudice deeply rooted in the minds of some Western-centrists.
In their eyes, the Western world holds the monopoly on truth, and is entitled to judge what is right and wrong in the world. It is not that those BBC reporters did not know what is truly happening in China, but that they felt utterly uncomfortable with those facts, so that they decided to remold them according to their imagination.
China welcomes all foreign media organizations as long as they can exercise journalistic professionalism and tell the world real stories about the country and its people. The ban on BBC sends out a clear signal that the days are officially over when Western media outlets can feel free to smear China without facing consequences.
If the BBC still wants to return to China's markets, it needs to do a serious soul-searching why it is cast out.
- Xinhua
* Minor edits by The Macau Post Daily
