'Our investigation found Mr Tice presented his views on immigration and asylum policy with insufficient challenge'
GB News finds itself in hot water once more, after yet another show was found to have breached impartiality guidelines.
UK media regulator Ofcom has ruled that GB News breached impartiality rules during a programme presented by former Brexit Party MEP Martin Daubney, who was standing in for Laurence Fox.
The programme was broadcast on June 16th, where Daubney discussed his views on the topic of immigration and asylum policy, in the context of controversy over small boats crossing the English Channel. He also interviewed the leader of the Reform Party, Richard Tice.
Ofcom found that Tice was not ‘sufficiently challenged during the interview’. The regulator stated: “Given this programme featured in-depth discussion about immigration and asylum policy – a matter of major political controversy and current public policy – we consider that GB News should have taken additional steps to ensure that due impartiality was preserved.
“Our investigation found Mr Tice presented his views on immigration and asylum policy with insufficient challenge, and the limited alternative views presented in the programme 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 accepted that the content was not compliant with the heightened special impartiality requirements in the Code.”
A statement from GB News said: “We accept Ofcom’s finding and agree that our programme did not meet the due impartiality guidelines that our production team had planned.”
Yet again GB news continues to break Ofcom regulations. Last month, Ofcom found that GB News broke impartiality rules after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was interviewed by fellow Tory MPs Esther McVey and Philip Davies, with the channel ‘failing to represent and give due weight to an appropriately wide range of significant views on a matter of major political controversy’.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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