Ofcom has rescinded three rulings of due impartiality breaches it made against GB News after two others were quashed by a High Court judge.
The regulator has also dropped six ongoing investigations relating to politicians presenting programmes at GB News, Talk TV and LBC as a result of last month’s judicial review win by GB News.
The newly-withdrawn breach decisions related to three 2023 broadcasts presented by husband and wife duo Esther McVey and Philip Davies, both of whom were Conservative MPs at the time. (Davies has since lost his seat.)
Like those quashed by the judicial review in February, the rulings said GB News breached impartiality requirements because the politicians had read out updates about news stories.
Politicians are forbidden under the Broadcasting Code from presenting or reporting for a news programme, but they may present “current affairs” programmes.
Until the judicial review, which related to two broadcasts presented by former Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, Ofcom had taken the view that a politician reading out news during a current affairs programme also broke the rules.
However Mrs Justice Collins Rice determined that this was a misapplication of the Code because the prohibition on politicians as newsreaders applied to news programmes, while Rees-Mogg’s programme had been “instantly and intuitively recognisable as a current affairs programme”.
[Read more: GB News wins Ofcom judicial review]
The judge said Ofcom could reassess the Rees-Mogg broadcasts to determine whether they were presented with due impartiality, but the regulator and GB News agreed during the proceedings that there had been “no issue of content partiality”.
Three weeks on from the judicial review ruling, Ofcom has now withdrawn the three breach decisions relating to McVey and Davies as well as a “not pursued” decision relating to another broadcast by Rees-Mogg. All six decisions have now been removed from GB News’ compliance record.
This week’s Ofcom broadcast bulletin carried news that the regulator has also discontinued investigations into six broadcasts that involved politicians:
- Jake Berry (then a Conservative MP) on Talk TV (now Talk), 12 December 2023, as well as a simulcast on Local TV
- Nigel Farage on GB News in 17 January 2024
- David Lammy (Labour) on LBC, 29 March 2024
- Alex Phillips (a former Brexit Party MEP) on Talk, 22 May 2024
- Morning Glory (usually presented by Mike Graham but on this date by former Reform UK deputy leader David Bull) on Talk, 19 July 2024.
GB News chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos said: “Although we welcome Ofcom’s adjustment of GB News’ compliance record, we note this only happened after GB News’ lawyers wrote to the regulator asking why its website failed to reflect the High Court’s judgment.
“It is noticeable that whilst Ofcom has previously rushed to social media to publicise new investigations and breach decisions against GB News – including in relation to the five breach decisions that have now been withdrawn – no equivalent posts were made to make the public aware of the High Court’s decision or the withdrawal of the five breach decisions.”
He added on Monday that the dropped investigations were “another vindication of GB News editorial decision making”.
On Monday Ofcom separately announced it has launched a new investigation into GB News over a January episode of its Headliners programme in which presenter Josh Howie said that “full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons” at a church would “include paedos”.
Ofcom received 1,382 complaints directly over the incident and another 71,851 that were collected by the Good Law Project and so do not count toward the official complaint count. The regulator will investigate whether the broadcast breached Rule 2.3 of the Broadcasting Code, which requires that material which may cause offence “is justified by the context”.
[Read more: ‘More than 60,000’ complain over GB News LGBTQ+ ‘paedos’ comment]
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
