The Future of the Media Magnate BBC Is Worrying

by Xiao Xiao

(from Guangdong Province, China)

On August 14, the BBC Chinese website published an on-spot report entitled The Chinese Cult that Kills “Demons.” The article tacitly agrees that “the murder in Zhaoyuan, Shandong Province, China” is related to the “Church of Almighty God,” but also adds a tragedy of the family of a “victim,” Mr. Wang, implying that the Church of Almighty God is a cult that stops at no evil. This is undoubtedly the best assistance and support to the CCP government’s deed of cracking down on the underground churches.

As we all know, since April the CCP has launched a political campaign of cracking down on the “cults” in Mainland China. They not only unilaterally fix a list of twenty “cults,” but also high-handedly suppress the religious people in Xinjiang and other places. And they even demolish the churches and crosses in places such as Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, arrest the ministers, seal off and expel the house churches, hunt and persecute the Christians….

The BBC’s guideline says, “Trust is the foundation of the BBC: we are independent, impartial and honest.” In over 90 years, as the biggest public news organization in Britain which is subsidized by the government but operates independently, the BBC took part in reporting almost every important news event of Britain. For a long time, the BBC has been considered one of the most respected media in the world. However, what’s puzzling is that after Chinese netizens raise many strong doubts about “the case in Zhaoyuan, Shandong Province,” the BBC actually chooses to issue such an incorrect report at the crucial moment when the world pays high attention to the religious freedom of China. It’s really astonishing and pitiful! Why is the reporting style of a world-class media so similar to the contemptible CCTV? Why does the BBC with the noble identity of the “voice of Britain” sing the same tune with the CCP?

The British government has been concerned about the human rights situation of China. However, to our disappointment, the BBC China editor Ms. Carrie simply stood on the CCP’s side in this report. Although it’s called “on-spot report,” it’s not objective or neutral and the content is partial and impetuous. She not only didn’t interview the Church of Almighty God but also hastily reached a conclusion and determined the nature of it. This way of doing makes people astonished at the BBC’s level of news reporting! We can’t help doubting: On the eve of the public trial of “the case in Zhaoyuan, Shandong Province,” what happened to the BBC, which asserts to “observe a strict neutrality and not to be disturbed by commerce”? How come it published such a report? To our doubt, why does the BBC, always having an insight to the affairs of the world and keeping the whole world in view, willingly act as the vanguard of rumoring and ballyhooing for the CCP? Why can’t it see clearly all at once what kind of party the CCP is? Why does it fail to see clearly all at once that the CCP is an expert at fabricating false news? Additionally, why can’t it see clearly the serious consequence of being hostile to the world, the mankind, and the history due to keeping company with the CCP?

All people of insight in the world see that the CCP is the real evil party and cult. Think back to the over sixty years since the CCP was in power in modern history. Black clouds weigh the country heavily with slaughter and fights everywhere, and bloody atrocities prevail in each place, where wails can be heard and people live in misery. It is these heads of devils weaving the lie of “communism” that pour in the generations of Chinese people the potions of “atheism” and “loving the party and the country” and publicly put the evil party in the place of God. Such a group of devils, which go against Heaven and run counter to right principles, can only bring the Chinese people to hell and to everlasting perdition! China has been claiming that it allows the “freedom of belief.” However, the Church of Almighty God has always been the object the CCP, the evil party, attacks and condemns, and thousands of people are arrested, detained, and cruelly tortured and even to disability or death. In face of these bloody facts, why does the sophisticated BBC play a role that is “silly and naive”? Why does it become selectively “blind” all at once? Is there a benefit chain hidden behind it? What kind of trade is concealed? These are the factors people can’t avoid thinking of.

As a Christian of the Church of Almighty God, I pay attention to the BBC and respect the BBC. So I hope that such an impartial media can be a model of resisting the vicious CCP and be a relatively impartial and true voice in the world. However, what the great majority of netizens worry about is that the public confidence level of the BBC has been declining over the decades. In 2012, due to the exposure of the sexual abuse scandal of its previous ace host and its incorrect coverage of a Parliament member’s child abuse case, the BBC’s CEO and news chief resigned successively, so that the BBC suffered the greatest crisis throughout its history. According to the analyses of various media, what the BBC that broadcasts the report of the facts lost most in this storm was the unrivaled public confidence that it once had owned.

The journalist John Simpson said, “Reputations once lost are very hard indeed to regain. People forget the precise reasons why they no longer have faith in an organisation, but the whiff of untrustworthiness lingers for a very long time. The BBC must have a thoroughgoing reform, though it will be painful. Or we will never regain the high reputation we enjoyed around the world until just a few weeks ago.”

Whenever the crisis of the public confidence comes out, it needs a long time effort to recover gradually. The incorrect report is one of maladies causing BBC’s many crises. The anger and disappointment of the public will surely turn into the paper money burnt on its funeral. It is the time BBC should have a deep examination. If the BBC doesn’t put an end to such a kind of report, its future is worrying! The chairman of the BBC Trust Chris Patten said, “Does the BBC need a thorough structural radical overhaul? Absolutely it does and that is what we will have to do.” I agree with Chairman Patten’s opinion and expect to see that BBC can again become the most respected media in the world through reformation.

We’ll wait and see how the BBC is going to resolve this problem.