Ofcom has put GB News on notice after finding the broadcaster guilty of further breaches of the broadcasting code.
- Politicians as presenters result in five breaches of broadcasting code
- GB News faces threat of statutory sanction, but still hasn’t been fined after 12 breaches of broadcasting rules in under three years
- Critics say Ofcom is not doing enough; free speech supporters say Ofcom is interfering with their right to say what they want.
A series of investigations by the UK’s broadcasting regulator Ofcom has found GB News guilty of breaching due impartiality rules on five occasions. The breaches are due to the broadcaster’s practice of employing politicians as presenters.
Under the Broadcasting Code, news, in whatever form, must be presented with due impartiality. Additionally, a politician cannot be a newsreader, news interviewer or news reporter unless, exceptionally, there is editorial justification.
The programmes that fell foul of Ofcom rules
After careful consideration – including analysis of the content and detailed representations from GB News – Ofcom determined that two episodes of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s State of the Nation, two episodes of Friday Morning with Esther and Phil, and one episode of Saturday Morning with Esther and Phil, broadcast during May and June 2023, failed to comply with Rules 5.1 and 5.3 of the Broadcasting Code.
All five programmes in question contained a mix of news and current affairs content. Ofcom’s analysis found that host politicians acted as newsreaders, news interviewers or news reporters in sequences which clearly constituted news – including reporting breaking news events – without exceptional justification. News was, therefore, not presented with due impartiality.
However, a sixth programme under investigation – a separate episode of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s State of the Nation – did not raise issues warranting investigation under these rules . In the case of this live programme, Jacob Rees-Mogg was used as an eye-witness, in situ news reporter during an unforeseen security incident at Buckingham Palace.
GB News has breached a number of broadcasting rules since its launch in 2021. However, this is the first time it’s breached rules relating to politicians as presenters.
Should Ofcom find the broadcaster guilty of any further such breaches, GB News may face a statutory sanction. So far, Ofcom has breached UK broadcasting rules 12 times without having to pay any fines.
Critics say Ofcom isn’t doing enough…
Critics however say Ofcom hasn’t done enough to ensure GB News adheres to long-standing UK broadcasting rules. Last week, Ofcom content partner and ITN Chief Exec Stewart Purvis and Chris Banatvala, who was Ofcom’s founding director of standards, who helped draft the regulator’s first broadcasting code, raised concerns over Ofcom’s handling of GB News. They accused the regulator of flexing the rules on due impartially, based on audience expectations of the channel. They noted that GB News had got away with allowing politician-presenters to interview other politicians of the same party. Similar content from the likes of Press TV from Iran, CGTN from China and RT from Moscow was censured by Ofcom.
Supporters say Ofcom is interfering with free speech…
GB News and its supporters claim Ofcom is surpressing their right to free speech.
GB News has cited rulings by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to protect its right of freedom of expression. That’s despite some of the channel’s supporters campaigning for the UK’s departure from the jurisdiction of the court.
Some supporters have recently branded the regulator ‘Ofcommunists’.
What do the UK broadcasting rules say?
In fact, UK TV broadcasters are not entitled to unrestricted free speech. Instead, they must present news with ‘due impartiality’. Different rules apply to current affairs programmes. The rules on current affairs gives broadcasters more flexibility to screen content showing different points of view. But GB News is accused of blurring the lines between current affairs and news programmes and testing how far it can go under UK broadcasting rules.
Marc Thornham
[Image: GB News logo; stock]