Ofcom says it is starting the process for consideration of a statutory sanction against GB News after finding that a People's Forum featuring Rishi Sunak broke strict broadcasting impartiality rules.
The regulator announced back in February that it was investigating a Q&A session which saw the Prime Minister answer questions from the public. Ofcom received 547 complaints about the hour-long current affairs programme. GB News have responded in a stinging statement, saying the decision "runs contrary to the democratic principle that it is the people who chose their leaders, not the elites"
Ofcom said "Given this represents a serious and repeated breach of these rules, we are now starting the process for consideration of a statutory sanction against GB News. Ofcom has no issue with this programme’s editorial format in principle. In line with freedom of expression, broadcasters are free to innovate and use different editorial techniques in their programming – including offering audiences innovative forms of debate. But in doing so, they must observe the rules in our Broadcasting Code.
"We recognised that this programme would focus mainly on the Conservative Party’s policies and track-record on a number of specific issues, meaning that Conservative viewpoints would be prevalent. We are clear that this, in and of itself, did not mean the programme could not comply with due impartiality rules under the Code.
Angry GB News called it 'an alarming development in its attempt to silence us'"It was incumbent on GB News, however, given the major matters under discussion, to ensure that an appropriately wide range of significant views was given due weight in the programme or in other clearly linked and timely programmes."
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Responding with a lengthy statement, GB News said: "The upcoming general election will be decided by the people of Britain, not journalists, not Ofcom regulators, but ordinary people. That is why GB News decided to host a People’s Forum with Rishi Sunak earlier this year, to allow citizens a chance to directly challenge and interrogate their Prime Minister.
"However, Ofcom has decided that this programme was in breach of their rules on so-called “due impartiality”, claiming that the hour-long cross-examination of Sunak by the public represented “a mostly uncontested platform” for the PM to “promote the policies and performance of his Government”.
"Except that 14 of the 15 questions posed to Sunak were hostile and the Prime Minister was repeatedly put on the spot by a politically balanced audience independently selected by a polling organisation. This was not a party political broadcast for the Conservative Party. This was a robust inspection by voters of Sunak’s record as a leader, live from a working men’s club in the north of England. This fact goes to the crux of Ofcom's ruling: Is it not crucial that citizens are able to challenge their leaders in a democracy?
The channel said it 'was not a party political broadcast for the Conservative Party'"Ofcom bemoaned that the programme’s presenter did not challenge Sunak’s responses “to any meaningful extent” (despite several challenges) and recommended that to comply with their rules, alternative viewpoints should have been expressed through interjections by the presenter to the PM.
"The Prime Minister is quizzed near-daily by professional journalists in press conferences and briefings, and though perhaps “challenging” in Ofcom’s eyes, their questions are more often than not trifling, tedious and trivial. Could you imagine a regular broadcast journalist asking Sunak about vaccine injuries, or a question from the Reform Party’s perspective on the failure of Tories to control Britain’s borders?
Such questions, and many more, were put to Sunak in this programme that Ofcom has decided was unacceptable. We believe that journalists arguing with politicians, for example over who ate cake in Downing Street, is not as important as allowing the public to air their very real grievances to their elected leaders. However, in Ofcom’s eyes, such a programme cannot be allowed."
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