cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33122022
A campaign started in 2018 by Safeguard Defenders, a human rights organization focused on China, revealed how the Chinese police use threats and fear to coerce scripted confessions for television. In 2021, it led to a ban on broadcasts of the international arms of China’s state TV (CGTN and CCTV-4) in several countries, including the UK, Australia and a number of European nations.
After 2020 China's forced televised confessions of foreigners ceased, except for those of Taiwanese citizens.
But now, it appears they’re back at it again.
[...]
On April 3, domestic channel CCTV-13 and the international Chinese-language channel CCTV-4 broadcast the forced confessions of three Filipino expats living in China.
The two young men and one young woman are accused of espionage, something which the Philippine government vehemently denies.
The CCTV-4 broadcast (which includes one of the confessions) was aired internationally, including in Canada, where our long-term regulatory complaint on the use of such forced televised confessions remains pending before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The renewed airing of forced confessions, abusive and harmful content, is yet another clear violation of the terms and conditions of CCTV-4’s continued broadcasting license in Canada.
Now, Filipino authorities and TV providers face the same issue, as the illegal forced televised confessions of their compatriots were broadcast on their own soil.
[...]
CCTV-4 is broadcast in the Philippines through SKY Cable Corporation. In its public values statement, the pay television and broadband arm of ABS-CBN highlights its commitment to “serving the Filipino”. It claims to uphold a customer service that drives the company “to treat Filipinos as our Kapamilyas (e.g. ‘family’) whose interest is put above all”.
[...]