An episode of the now discontinued Mark Steyn programme was found to be in serious breach of UK broadcasting rules, the second time GB News has fallen foul of Ofcom.
The programme included an interview between presenter Mark Steyn and Dr Naomi Wolf. During the interview, Naomi Wolf made serious claims about the Covid vaccine, including that its rollout amounted to a pre-meditated crime – “mass murder” – and was comparable to the actions of “doctors in pre-Nazi Germany”.
Following the programme, Ofcom received 422 complaints that alleged these comments were “dangerous” and included “misinformation” that went “unopposed”.
Ofcom investigated under Rule 2.1 of the Code which states that “Generally accepted standards must be applied to the contents of television and radio services…so as to provide adequate protection for members of the public from the inclusion in such services of harmful and/or offensive material”.
Finding GB News guilty of a broadcasting code breach, Ofcom said it was “concerned that Naomi Wolf was given the opportunity to present her claims without challenge or other contextualisation, for example through other contributions in the programme or by the presenter who appeared to support many of her comments. There was also no scrutiny of the evidence she claimed to hold to support her claims.”
In making the decision, Ofcom has also made it clear that, in line with the right to freedom of expression, broadcasters are “free to transmit programmes that include controversial and challenging views about any topic”. However, alongside this editorial freedom, the Code
imposes a clear requirement that if the broadcast of any content – an unchallenged conspiracy theory, in this case – has the potential to be harmful, the broadcaster must ensure that its audience is adequately protected.
GB News ordered to attend Ofcom meeting
As it’s the channel’s second breach of broadcasting rules, Ofcom is requesting that GB News Ltd attends a meeting to discuss its compliance approach in light of these two significant Code breaches.
The Guardian previously reported that Mark Steyn had left GB News after being told by the broadcaster to pay his own Ofcom fines.