OFCOM has found that five episodes of GB News presented by Tory MPs have been found to breach broadcasting rules.
The watchdog had announced investigations had been opened into particular episodes of a number of shows last year.
It has since found 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, broke broadcasting rules.
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Here’s what you need to know.
What rules were broken?
Ofcom says it found that the shows “failed to comply with rules 5.1 and 5.3 of the Broadcasting Code”.
It notes that these are the first breaches of these specific rules recorded against GB News and said that the channel has been put on notice and that any further breaches could result in sanctions.
We told at the beginning of the month that Ofcom published a ruling on Laurence Fox’s tirade against a female journalist on the channel, and that concerns had been raised about the channel’s live output.
What does the code say?
Section five of the Ofcom code relates to due impartiality and due accuracy.
Specifically, here’s what rules 5.1 and 5.3 say:
- News, in whatever form, must be reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality
- No politician may be used as a newsreader, interviewer or reporter in any news programme unless, exceptionally, it is editorially justified – in that case, the political allegiance of the person must be made clear to the audience
Following the investigation, Ofcom said: "We found 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.
“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."
It went on: “Politicians have an inherently partial role in society and news content presented by them is likely to be viewed by audiences in light of that perceived bias.
“In our view, the use of politicians to present the news risks undermining the integrity and credibility of regulated broadcast news.”
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