A press freedom group says China was the biggest global jailer of journalists last year with more than 100 behind bars as President Xi Jinping’s government tightened control over society.

An employee of Chinese state TV has posted photos of missing tennis star Peng Shuai online in a new effort to dispel concern about her disappearance after she accused a senior leader of sexual assault.

The head of the women’s professional tennis tour is questioning the legitimacy of a retraction Chinese state media says was from a Grand Slam doubles champion who has accused a former top government official of sexual assault.

FILE - This Oct. 17, 2007, file photo, shows the BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation sign on their offices at White City in London. The move Thursday was largely symbolic, because BBC World was shown only on cable TV systems in hotels and apartment compounds for foreigners and some other businesses. The National Radio and Television Administration said BBC World News coverage of China violated requirements that news reporting be true and impartial. In Hong Kong, government broadcaster RTHK said it would stop carrying BBC World broadcasts on Friday. AdA Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Ofcom acted on “political grounds based on ideological bias."

Cheng has been formally arrested in China on suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets overseas, Australias foreign minister says. The arrest of Cheng Lei last Friday starts an official criminal investigation and came six months after she was detained. “The Australian government has raised its serious concerns about Ms. Cheng’s detention regularly at senior levels, including about her welfare and conditions of detention,” Foreign Minister Marise Payne said. Before the last two journalists working for Australian media in China left the country in September, they were questioned by Chinese authorities about Cheng. Australian Broadcasting Corp. reporter Bill Birtles and The Australian Financial Review’s Michael Smith were told they were “persons of interest” in an investigation into Cheng.

The rest of the team arrived at the Wuhan airport and walked through a makeshift clear plastic tunnel into the airport. The team includes virus and other experts from the United States, Australia, Germany, Japan, Britain, Russia, the Netherlands, Qatar and Vietnam. A government spokesman said this week they will “exchange views” with Chinese scientists but gave no indication whether they would be allowed to gather evidence. A possible focus for investigators is the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the city where the outbreak first emerged. One of China's top virus research labs, it built an archive of genetic information about bat coronaviruses after the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.