GB News has hit back against Ofcom’s decision to uphold complaints about shows hosted by Tory MPs Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, Esther McVey and Phillip Davies after the media regulator found five episodes breached broadcasting rules. The broadcaster has more on its website.
Ofcom announced the five episodes broke set rules due to politicians “acting as news presenters”.
However, GB News stressed the media watchdog’s ruling is based on arbitrary changes to how Ofcom determines impartiality.
A GB News spokesman said: “We are deeply concerned by the decisions Ofcom has made today.
“We will raise this directly with the regulator in the strongest possible terms.
“Ofcom is obliged by law to promote free speech and media plurality and to ensure that alternative voices are heard.
“Its latest decisions, in some cases a year after the programme aired, contravene those duties.
“Extraordinarily, Ofcom has determined that a programme which it acknowledges was impartial and lacking in any expression of opinion, still somehow breaches its impartiality rules just because an imaginary viewer might think otherwise.
“Ofcom has now arbitrarily changed the test so that it is no longer ‘Was it impartial?’ but ‘Could someone think it might not be?’
“This is a chilling development for all broadcasters, for freedom of speech, and for everyone in the United Kingdom.
“These decisions go against established precedent and raises serious questions about Ofcom’s oversight over its own regulations.
“It appears that Ofcom is trying to extend the regulations, rather than enforcing definitions which have been settled for many years.”
He added: “GB News is a regulated broadcast channel and takes its obligations very seriously.”
Worth reading in full.
The issue, apparently, is that politicians may host current affairs shows but are not allowed to host news programmes – and Ofcom claims the MPs’ shows would be understood by viewers as news programmes.
All five programmes in question contained a mix of news and current affairs content. We 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.
Stop Press: Jacob Rees-Mogg has responded to the ruling: “Old fashioned is usually good but Ofcom is antediluvian.”
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