CAMRI PhD graduate interviewed by The Times about CGTN’s new UK headquarters

Dr. Vivien Marsh, who recently completed her PhD, on China’s external media, at CAMRI, has been interviewed by The Times about China Global Television Network’s (CGTN) plans to create a new UK headquarters. CGTN, owned by the state-controlled network CCTV, will open its first European hub in west London this year. It has leased a 30,000 sq ft office in Chiswick to use as a studio and production base. It is also looking to recruit dozens of UK-based news anchors, presenters and producers to push China’s message to British viewers. It promises impartial news “from a Chinese perspective”. The high salaries on offer — up to £160,000 for a director of news — indicate the sophistication of the planned operation. The hub may eventually have 300 staff.

“China wants a voice in the world that’s commensurate with its economic power”, said Vivien in the piece, “It’s becoming assertive on the global stage.” She goes on to assert that “CGTN has no pretension to be anything other than what it is, a state media organisation”. And although Chinese state media is required to be the “tongue and throat” of the Communist Party, the “people who work for it will try to be as journalistically accurate as they can be but they [will] come up against red lines and they can’t go across them.”

The full article, by Matthew Moore, can be read on The Times’ website (paywalled)