BEIJING: China has suspended satellite television broadcasts by the British Broadcasting Corp. after it carried news footage of the banned Falun Gong group, the broadcaster said Thursday.
BBC World remained suspended Thursday, four days after the item aired, a BBC spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity. Other satellites continued to bring the BBC into China, however.
"We are aware that an item which appeared on BBC World ... has caused some concern to the Chinese authorities,'' a BBC statement said. "We are seeking to understand in more detail the precise nature of their concerns and to see if they can be resolved in a positive and constructive manner.''
It said the channel's transmissions were cut off from a satellite known as Chinese Sinosat 1 and affected only viewers in China, including those in 60,000 up-market hotel rooms across the country and apartment blocks where foreigners live. That is the only officially authorized BBC transmission in China.
The cutoff came after a broadcast on the fifth anniversary of Hong Kong's July 1, 1997, handover from Britain to China - a news item that included material on Falun Gong, the spiritual movement banned by the Chinese government in 1999.
"We're still trying to get to the bottom of their concerns, but I think it's safe to assume that's what it was,'' the spokeswoman said. She said China had offered no information on when the service might be reinstated.
In Beijing, the State General Bureau of Radio, Television and Film refused comment, asking for questions to be sent by fax. There was no response by late Thursday.
China's broadcasters, like its other media, are state-controlled and kept on a tight leash. Foreign media are allowed more leeway, but retributions against reporting that irritates the government are not uncommon.
Falun Gong is a particularly thorny issue with the communist leadership in Beijing, which considers it a threat to order and control. What's more, the movement, also known as Falun Dafa, has made a practice of commandeering local television stations to promote its cause and condemn the government.
The suspended channel has been available since January 2001 under an agreement between the BBC and the Chinese government, the spokeswoman said. She said this was the first suspension since then.
The BBC World channel's service on three other satellites - known as Panamsat 2, 8 and 10 - was uninterrupted and continued to be broadcast throughout Asia, including China, the statement said. - AP