All the times GB News has breached Ofcom rules

The controversial right-wing news channel that is GB News has sparked backlash on many occasions since it launched back in June 2021, and sometimes, it’s even had a telling-off from the watchdog Ofcom for breaching its broadcasting regulations.

In the latest development, the regulator announced on Monday that it would now begin considering whether to apply a statutory sanction against GB News, which could take the form of a fine or even the revocation of the channel's broadcasting licence.

The programme in question was People's Forum: The Prime Minister, which saw Prime Minister Rishi Sunak take questions from the public in a live Q&A on February 12, and prompted more than 500 complaints.

In the regulator’s latest decision, Ofcom said: "We found that an appropriately wide range of significant viewpoints were not presented and given due weight in the People’s Forum: The Prime Minister, nor was due impartiality preserved through clearly linked and timely programmes.

"As a result, we consider that the Prime Minister had a mostly uncontested platform to promote the policies and performance of his Government in a period preceding a UK General Election.

"Ofcom considers GB News’s failure to preserve due impartiality in this case to be serious and – given its two previous breaches of these rules – repeated. We are therefore now starting our process for consideration of a statutory sanction against GB News."

But this certainly isn’t the first time GB News has fallen foul of the TV rules over the years, and we’ve rounded them all up below:

To The Point, 2 March 2022:

Before it was ruffling Ofcom’s feathers on the small screen, GB News was found in breach of the regulator’s Broadcasting Code on the airwaves over its reporting on the Erdington by-election held in March 2022 (triggered after the passing of Labour MP Jack Dromey).

After a report on the election was aired on both TV and radio, a full list of candidates standing in the contest (required under Rule 6.10) was not given to those listening in on the radio.

“In its consideration of the licensee’s representations, Ofcom acknowledged that GB News Ltd said it believed that ‘minimal harm’ was caused to its audience, but did not consider that this was relevant to this case and the licensee’s compliance with special impartiality requirements in constituency reports during an election period.

“In all the circumstances, Ofcom did not consider it appropriate to record the breach of Rule 6.10 in this case as resolved,” the decision, published in November 2022, reads.

Mark Steyn, 21 April 2022:

The Canadian author’s show was first found in breach in March 2023, after an episode of the programme almost a year prior made “misleading” claims about the third ‘booster’ shot of the coronavirus vaccine.

Steyn told viewers: “There is only one conclusion from those [UK Health Security Agency] numbers, which is that the third booster shot, so zealously promoted by the British state and its groupthink media, has failed, and in fact exposed you to significantly greater risk to infection, hospitalisation and death.”

However, Ofcom ruled the comments were “misleading” because it did not consider “key factors” in the data “such as the significant differences in age or health” in two groups – those who had the booster and those who didn’t – and “failed to reflect” that the UKHSA itself said the data “should not be used to draw conclusions about vaccine efficacy” because of biases present in vaccinated and unvaccinated populations.

“Overall, we concluded that this factual programme may have resulted in viewers making important decisions about their health, and it was therefore potentially harmful and materially misleading.

“Ofcom has made clear that, in line with the right to freedom of expression, broadcasters are free to transmit programmes which may be considered controversial and challenging, and to question statistics or other evidence produced by government sources.

“However, this editorial freedom comes with the obligation on broadcasters to ensure that programmes comply with the Code and, in particular, that factual programmes must not materially mislead the audience,” Ofcom said.

Steyn had already resigned from GB News at this point, releasing a scathing video online in February 2023 in which he said: “I’m on the hook for Ofcom fines but I don’t have any say in our defence against an Ofcom complaint – that’s all done by GB News.

“Ofcom’s b****, as I call the compliance officer, will be making a weedy defence to Ofcom and then I’m the one who has to pay the £40,000 fine.”

Mark Steyn (again), 4 October 2022:

More than 420 complaints were received by Ofcom in relation to what complainants said were “dangerous” comments about the coronavirus vaccine that went “unopposed”.

Dr Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth, appeared on Steyn’s programme to claim a “mass murder” had taken place as a result of the vaccine rollout which she compared to what “doctors in pre-Nazi Germany” were doing – a comment which GB News argued was “not excessive and a reasonable comparison” for Dr Wolf to make as a Jewish woman.

Yet, Ofcom concluded: “We found that comments made by Naomi Wolf had the potential to impact on viewers’ decisions about their health and were therefore potentially harmful.

“We were 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.

“We concluded that the programme did not provide adequate protection to viewers from the potentially harmful content.”

Saturday Morning with Esther and Philip, 11 March 2023:

Impartiality is important in political broadcasting, and so when GB News decided to air an interview from two Conservative MPs chatting to Conservative chancellor Jeremy Hunt about Conservative policy (including the upcoming spring budget), Ofcom ruled the channel was taking the proverbial biscuit.

They said of the programme, helmed by Tory couple Esther McVey and Philip Davies: “Given this programme featured two sitting MP presenters from one political party interviewing the Chancellor of the same political party about a matter of major political controversy and current public policy, we consider, in these circumstances, that GB News should have taken additional steps to ensure that due impartiality was preserved.

“Our investigation therefore concluded that GB News failed to represent and give due weight to an appropriately wide range of significant views on a matter of major political controversy and current public policy within this programme.”

Laurence Fox, 16 June 2023:

Former Brexit Party MEP Martin Daubney stood in for the Reclaim leader in this episode, in which he interviewed Richard Tice, leader of Reform UK about immigration and asylum policy as well as aired his own views on the contentious topic.

In this case, Ofcom ruled: “We found that Mr Tice presented his position on a matter of major political controversy and a major matter of current public policy with insufficient challenge, and the limited alternative views presented were dismissed.

“The programme therefore did not include and give due weight to an appropriately wide range of significant views, as required by the Code.”

GB News agreed the content was not in keeping with the Code’s special impartiality requirements, and Ofcom stated it expects GB News to “take careful account of this decision in its compliance of future programming”.

That didn’t last long…

The Live Desk, 7 July 2023:

In December, Ofcom found GB News’ promotion of the ‘Don’t Kill Cash’ campaign – which calls on the government to “introduce legislation to protect the status of cash as legal tender and as a widely accepted means of payment in the UK until at least 2050” – on The Live Desk did not uphold “due impartiality”.

That part of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code states such impartiality must be maintained when discussing matters of “political or industrial controversy and matters of current public policy” – something GB News argued the campaign was not.

“Ofcom found that by promoting the GB News-branded campaign, the views and opinions of GB News Ltd (the person providing the service) on the matter of whether to mandate the acceptance of cash were expressed, in breach of Rule 5.4.

“We took into account factors including that: GB News clearly endorsed the campaign; the QR code and messaging shown on-screen encouraged viewers to sign a petition calling for legislative change; and the campaign was promoted across GB News programming.

“We also found that the programme failed to preserve due impartiality in its coverage of this matter,” it said.

Dan Wootton Tonight, 26 September 2023

This case concerned the comments Reclaim Party leader Laurence Fox made about journalist Ava Evans, which saw Wootton suspended, and Fox and fellow contributor Calvin Robinson (who backed Wootton amid said suspension) sacked from the channel.

More than 8,800 complaints were made to Ofcom over the remarks by Fox, which the regulator said constituted a “highly personal attack on Ms Evans and were potentially highly offensive to viewers”.

“They reduced her contribution to a broadcast discussion on mental health - in her professional capacity as a political journalist - to a judgment on whether she, or women like her who publicly expressed their political opinions, were sexually desirable to men.

“As such, we considered that Mr Fox’s comments were degrading and demeaning both to Ms Evans and women generally and were clearly and unambiguously misogynistic.

“In our view, Mr Wootton’s reaction and limited challenge in response did not mitigate the potential for offence. Rather, they exacerbated it by contributing to the narrative in which a woman’s value was judged by her physical appearance,” it wrote.

The watchdog said it considered the right to freedom of expression, but still found the programme in breach of its generally accepted standards on harm and offence, which states material which may cause offence must be “justified by the context”.

It added: “Taking into particular account that Mr Fox’s misogynistic comments were directed at an individual, went largely unchallenged by the presenter, and the absence of any apology in the programme itself, we do not consider that the significant potential for offence was justified by the context in this case.”

On the day of the decision, Fox took to Twitter and shared an article from 2020 about comedian Jo Brand not facing any further action from Ofcom over a joke about throwing battery acid.

He commented: “It’s beyond silly. Ofcom are a joke. No wonder people are deserting mainstream media in their droves.”

And a day later, Wootton announced he was no longer employed by GB News and that he would instead be running his own news platform.

He said: “I have left GB News to launch my own independent Outspoken platform which will from later this year feature a brand new daily news and opinion show that will NOT be regulated by the Ofcommunist censors.

“However, yesterday’s chilling Ofcom report clearly raises far bigger issues.

“How can any broadcaster or publisher truly stand for freedom of expression when state goons have the power to decide what you are and are not allowed to say on air?”

Ramping up the stern words, Ofcom at this point said it would be requiring GB News to “provide further detailed information about its compliance practices in this area for our consideration”, and will be requesting the broadcaster attend a meeting at Ofcom’s offices to discuss these details.

Five in one go

Another pretty big blow to GB News came later that same month, when Ofcom announced in one single bulletin that five separate programmes breached rules around due impartiality and having politicians act as newsreaders, news interviewers or reporters.

Those programmes were:

• Jacob Rees-Mogg’s State of the Nation, 9 May 2023: In which Rees-Mogg broke the news about a jury verdict in Donald Trump’s sexual abuse and defamation trial brought by writer E Jean Carroll.
• Friday Morning with Esther and Philip, 12 May 2023: The programme included a segment on a teenager being sentenced for terrorism offences.
• Saturday Morning with Esther and Philip, 13 May 2023: The programme featured an interview with Reform UK London mayoral candidate Howard Cox live from a demonstration against the capital’s Ultra Low Emission Zone.
• Jacob Rees-Mogg’s State of the Nation, 13 June 2023: The programme covered a stabbing in Nottingham.
• Friday Morning with Esther and Philip, 23 June 2023: The programme featured reports on a new junior doctors strike announced by the British Medical Association, and a meeting between the chancellor of the Exchequer and mortgage lenders.

In a step up from warning about a statutory sanction two weeks prior, Ofcom wrote: “GB News is on notice that any repeated breaches of Rules 5.1 and 5.3 may result in the imposition of a statutory sanction.”

Then there’s the ones Ofcom is currently investigating…

Oh, but there could well be more breaches ahead, as Ofcom confirmed to indy100 it has 12 open investigations into GB News, looking into the following broadcasts/issues:

• The ‘Don’t Kill Cash’ Campaign: Other programmes investigated under the same impartiality rules as The Live Desk are Breakfast with Eamonn and Isabel (6 July 2023), Patrick Christys (6 July 2023) and Britain’s Newsroom (5 July and 11 July 2023).
• Dan Wootton Tonight, 18 July 2023: The programme, investigated under “fairness and privacy” rules, included a discussion about reports the Duchess of Sussex had concerns about the Duke of Sussex’s memoir Spare.

And the ones Ofcom found weren’t in breach or discontinued in some way:

• Talking Pints, 23 August 2021:Nigel Farage’s interview with darts legend Bobby George was investigated for “offensive language”, but was not found to be in breach of Ofcom’s rules.
• To The Point, 4 April 2022: Ofcom discontinued its investigation into the programme on the grounds of “fairness”. The show included a discussion around alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
• Jacob Rees-Mogg's State of the Nation, 2 May 2023: Ofcom concluded Rees-Mogg reporting on an incident at Buckingham Palace was “editorially justified” given the “exceptional circumstances of this case”.
• Breakfast with Stephen and Ellie and Nana Akua, 23 July 2023: Both shows were looked into around “fairness”, but the investigation was discontinued.
• Lee Anderson’s Real World, 29 September 2023: Despite telling off GB News for having Esther McVey and Philip Davies interview Jeremy Hunt, Ofcom did not pursue an investigation into the Ashfield MP’s interview of Suella Braverman on due impartiality because it included “an appropriately wide range of significant views on the major matter which were given due weight”.
• Neil Oliver, 13 January 2024: The outspoken Oliver claimed on his show in January that a non-existent condition called 'turbo cancer' existed and Pfizer was developing treatments for it. Despite being not true, the watchdog said: "In line with freedom of expression, our rules allow broadcasters to cover controversial themes and topics. We recognise that these brief comments were the presenter’s personal view and did not materially mislead the audience."

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.