Uk probeS cHineSe tv for breaking ruleS

LONDON: A private investigator previously jailed in China has asked Britain to restrict China Central Television’s operations on the grounds that it broke UK broadcasting rules by airing confessions he said he was forced to make.

Briton Peter Humphrey and his American wife Yu Yingzeng were sentenced in 2014 for illegally obtaining private records of Chinese citizens and selling the information to clients, including drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline.

They were deported from China in June 2015 after their jail terms were reduced. The case was intertwined with an investigation of GSK in China that led to a $489 million fine against the firm for paying bribes to doctors to use its drugs.

Humphrey said in a complaint to British media regulator Ofcom that CCTV had collaborated with police to extract, record and broadcast a confession he said he was forced to make long before his actual trial. An Ofcom spokeswoman said: “We have received a complaint which we are assessing as a priority. “If, following investigation, we find our rules have been broken, we would take the necessary enforcement action.” The regulator has the power to fine a broadcaster for breaching rules, and in the most severe infringements can revoke a licence. It fined Al Arabiya News, an Arabic language news channel based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 120,000 pounds earlier this year for broadcasting what it said was a confession made by a Bahraini opposition leader filmed in a prison without obtaining consent.