CGTN (TV channel)

• Daniela Anahi Bessia — Main guest on CGTN Shows, and award winner Shanghai most influential people[13]
• Charlotte MacInnis  — Crossover, Growing Up With Chinese
• Edwin Maher (previously with ABC and CRI)  — News Hour, News Desk (formerly News Update, Asia Today, World Wide Watch, Biz China)
• Anand Naidoo (previously with CNN and Al Jazeera English)  — The Heat
• Asieh Namdar (previously with CNN)  — CGTN America News
• Susan E. Roberts (previously with WPRI-TV)  — CGTN America News
• Laura Schmitt — Rediscovering China
• Liu Xin — The Point with Liu Xin
• Mike Walter (previously with USA Today)  — CGTN America News
• Tian Wei  — World Insight
• Yang Rui  — Dialogue, New Money
• Phillip TK Yin (previously with Bloomberg TV)  — Biz Asia America
• Jiao Yang - the Link
• Josh Lane - in-house poet and haiku writer
• Jamie Owen Presenter of the Breakfast Show
• Edward Eugene Lehman Registered Foreign Expert (SAFEA) and China Legal Expert Registered with CCTV News;— Legal Commentator on "CCTV Dialogue"[14]

• Terry Baddoo (previously with CNN)  — Game Time London
• James Chau (still a Special Contributor, previously with TVB Pearl)  — China 24, Asia Today, News Updates, World Insight
• Marc Edwards (moved to France 24 and later BBC)  — Travelogue
• Tracey Grebinski  — Rediscovering China
• Tracey Holmes (still does occasional field reports, previously with CNN and Channel 7)  — Sports Scene
• Michele Lean  — Center Stage, Travelogue
• Mark Rowswell  — Learn Chinese, Travel in Chinese
• Rui Chenggang  — Biz Talk

Despite its revamp launching of CCTV America, critics have voiced concerns over the level of self-censorship exercised by the channel, especially on sensitive domestic issues in China. Philip Cunningham of Cornell University, who has appeared more than 100 times on China Central Television talk shows said sensitive issues such as Tibet and Xinjiang were heavily edited on various programs.[18] Ma Jing, Director of CCTV America defends such allegation by saying that the channel edits stories the same way other news organizations do. She said: "We uphold the traditional journalistic values. We consider accuracy, objectivity, truthfulness, and public accountability very important, more important than anything else."[18]

The UK's Ofcom is inquiring into alleged state bias over its coverage of the Hong Kong protests since September 2019.[19]

On 23 November 2018, a British corporate investigator named Peter Humphrey submitted a formal complaint[20] to the United Kingdom's government communications regulator The Office of Communications, or Ofcom, maintaining he was forced under duress to confess on air over Chinese state broadcaster China Central Television's (CCTV) network and that, as the confession was subsequently broadcast[21] over the international arm of CCTV, China Global Television Network (CGTN), CGTN itself should be held culpable by Ofcom and denied the right to operate its broadcast service in the U.K. Humphrey's complaint cited two films produced by CCTV and additionally aired in the UK by CGTN, stating that both were scripted and directed by the Chinese police, the public security bureau, while he was a prisoner, in conditions of duress amounting to torture.[22][23] One such confession, staged in August 2013, was filmed by a CCTV crew with Humphrey locked in an iron chair inside a steel cage, wearing handcuffs and an orange prison vest. This was before he had been indicted, tried or convicted of a crime. The second, in July 2014, was once again filmed by CCTV, not in a cage this time, but still in a prison vest and handcuffs, before he had been tried or convicted on the charge of illegal information gathering.[24]

Ofcom said it would investigate the complaint and would "take necessary enforcement action" if rules are determined to have been violated.[20][25] In November 2019, CGTN aired a video of a UK consular employee, Simon Cheng, in captivity "confessing" to consorting with prostitutes. Within a week, Cheng had filed a new complaint to Ofcom.[26]

On 4 February 2021, CGTN had its license to broadcast in the United Kingdom revoked by broacasting regulator Ofcom after an investigation found that it was "controlled by a body which is ultimately controlled owned by the Chinese Communist Party".[27] In a statement, Ofcom said:

We have given CGTN significant time to come into compliance with the statutory rules. Those efforts have now been exhausted. Following careful consideration, taking account of all the facts and the broadcaster's and audience's rights to freedom of expression, we have decided it is appropriate to revoke the licence for CGTN to broadcast in the UK. We expect to conclude separate sanctions proceedings against CGTN for due impartiality and fairness and privacy breaches shortly.[28]

During Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping's tour of state media outlets in February 2016, he emphasized that they must "speak for the Party", and, further, that they must expand their influence abroad in order to "tell China’s story to the world". The Guardian's Louisa Lim and Julia Bergin wrote that while the "[China] Communist Party has always maintained a tight grip over domestic media, their strategy has shifted in recent years to spread that control globally", by "exerting their influence on media abroad, through a multifaceted approach that includes offering generous salary packages to recruit talented journalists away from local media in Africa, Latin America, and elsewhere; buying advertising supplements in mainstream foreign publications; buying foreign media companies outright; and making deals with local broadcasters in Africa and elsewhere to spread their content in local markets". One result of the China Communist Party's international media strategy has been the elimination of the independent Chinese-language media outlets in the United States, "through a mix of co-option and aggressive expansion of its own competitors".[29] Alongside their international media strategy, the Chinese Communist Party has also stepped up the use of "Pro-Beijing trolls -- the so-called 50-cent army, named for the price they are supposedly paid for each post" plus the "state-backed media and botnets [who] have been employed to pump out huge quantities of disinformation and misinformation" on social media platforms like Twitter.[30][31]

CGTN initially claimed that it had "editorial independence from any state direction or control". This was debunked by The New York Times reporter Paul Mozur in interviews with "current and former CGTN employees [who] say CCTV editors in Beijing often dictated plans for covering China. American employees sometimes pushed back, they said, and Ms. Ma allowed some flexibility when Beijing’s orders didn’t specifically forbid or dictate content. But three people interviewed said they had little choice but to air propaganda clips when Beijing said so".[32][29] CGTN employees were disciplined when a news report mentioned Falun Gong, the religious group labeled as a cult and banned by the PRC. The Flag of the Republic of China, which the PRC does not recognize, are banned from broadcasts. In November 2018, amid growing international criticism of China's imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of Muslim Uighurs in indoctrination camp programs designed to discourage Islam, CGTN America aired a pro-Beijing documentary portraying the camps as successful vocational training and antiterrorism centers and Uighurs as grateful.[33] In addition, CGTN America has broadcast "exclusive" coerced confessions of people accused of a wide variety of crimes in China, most notably the example of a Briton, Peter Humphrey.[34] In addition, some CGTN journalists "recall being asked to cross a sometimes blurred line between news reporting and intelligence gathering as they were asked to report on high-level government meetings".[29] International observers noted that while RT (formerly Russia Today) aims to divide its audience with controversial content, the "aim [of CGTN] is to influence public opinion overseas in order to nudge foreign governments into making policies favourable towards China’s Communist party" through more subtle means.[29]

The United States Department of State characterised "CGTN America’s relationship with a foreign government and a foreign political party as one of interest to Washington". The United States Department of Justice was concerned about an "expanding influence campaign being waged by Beijing through the global arms of state media outlets" like CGTN and Xinhua News Agency.[35][36] In putting pressure upon Xinhua and CGTN, a senior US official noted that US grievances towards the lack of reciprocity from Beijing on trade and media access as many American and international news outlets are blocked in China.[37] CGTN America said in its filings stamped 1 Feb. 2019 that it disagreed with the Justice Department's decision, but has registered as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agent Registration Act.[38] While this permits them to continue operating in the United States, they are required to disclose information about their annual budget and ownership structure, while also including disclaimers on broadcasts, published materials and social media identifying themselves as registered foreign agents. After registering with the FARA, CGTN America director general Ma Jing and a dozen other staffers were recalled to Beijing.[39]

On 18 September 2019, Nick Pollard, a veteran British TV executive, resigned from his post as consultant and advisor to CGTN, giving his reason for leaving as being CGTN's failure to comply with Ofcom's rules on impartiality in connection to its coverage of the Hong Kong anti-extradition bill protests.[40] He had joined CGTN in December 2018.[41]