[citation needed] In its early years, CCTV-9 broadcast English language news bulletins and cultural interest shows for most of each day, and aired mostly reruns during the overnight hours in China.
Ofcom concluded a company called Star China Media Limited held the broadcast license for CGTN but "did not have editorial responsibility", and thus it did not meet legal requirements.
[15] Registration requires CGTN America to disclose information about its annual budget and ownership structure, and to include disclaimers on broadcasts, published materials and social media identifying itself as a registered foreign agent.
CGTN first moved into the office in January 2018 and planned to begin broadcasts by the end of the year, although issues which included "obtaining visas for top managers and setting up technology" eventually delayed its launch to October 2019.
"[18] In addition to Chinese anchors, CGTN employs foreigners as news presenters, some of whom have extensive experience, such as Edwin Maher (a former newsreader and weatherman from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation), while others may be recent university graduates just embarking upon their careers.
[22] In mid-August 2020, Cheng Lei, an Australian journalist who since 2012 worked for CGTN as an anchor for a business show, was detained by Chinese authorities and charged in February 2021 with sharing state secrets, with no further information being provided.
[25] Observers have noted that 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 subtle means.
[26] Researchers Thomas Fearon and Usha M. Rodrigues argued that CGTN has a "dichotomous role as a credible media competing for audience attention on the world stage, and a vital government propaganda organ domestically.
"[27] According to James Palmer at Foreign Policy, the contrasting aims of RT (formerly Russia Today) and CGTN, "mirrors wider strategies: Moscow wants chaos it can exploit, while Beijing wants a stable world order—on its terms".
[28] While RT doesn't mind whether it goes to the far-left or the far-right, Chinese state media is permitted to "act from a very narrow, officially approved scope, and the risk of the political extremes is too much," according to journalist Hilton Yip.
[29] On the contrary to CGTN's investments in studios and numerous overseas bureaus, "the actual content is a mix of brutally tedious propaganda and bland documentaries.
[29] Despite its revamp launching of CCTV America, critics have voiced concerns over the level of censorship exercised by the channel, especially on sensitive domestic issues in China.
[29] Philip Cunningham of Cornell University, who has appeared more than 100 times on China Central Television talk shows, noted that sensitive issues such as Tibet and Xinjiang were heavily edited on various programs.
"[31] In March 2021, CGTN was fined £225,000 by Ofcom for bias in its coverage of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, which was found to have repeatedly breached fairness and impartiality requirements.
[32][33] On 23 November 2018, a British corporate investigator named Peter Humphrey submitted a formal complaint[34] 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[35] 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.
[36][37] 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.