“We have received around 500 complaints about the programme which aired on GB News on 12 February 2024.
GB News is facing yet another investigation by Ofcom over an alleged breach of impartiality rules.
This time it concerns the programme, People’s Forum: The Prime Minister on GB News, which saw Rishi Sunak take questions from the public in a live Q&A in Co Durham on February 12.
Ofcom said in a statement: “Ofcom has launched an investigation into People’s Forum: The Prime Minister on GB News under our due impartiality rules.
“We have received around 500 complaints about the programme which aired on GB News on 12 February 2024.
“We are investigating under Rules 5.11 and 5.12 of the Broadcasting Code which provide additional due impartiality requirements for programmes dealing with matters of major political controversy and major matters relating to current public policy. Specifically, Rules 5.11 and 5.12 require that an appropriately wide range of significant views must be included and given due weight in such programmes, or in clearly linked and timely programmes.”
It’s not the first time that GB News is being investigated by Ofcom.
In September, GB News was found to have breached impartiality rules by airing an interview with UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt that was conducted by two other Conservative MPs.
Esther McVey, a former pensions minister, and her husband Philip Davies, a longstanding MP, were accused of hosting a “love-in” interview with Jeremy Hunt on 11 March for their weekly morning show on the channel.
In December, an Ofcom investigation found that GB News broke due impartiality rules during a summer episode in promoting a campaign called ‘Don’t Kill Cash’. The programme, Ofcom found, “failed to preserve due impartiality in its coverage of this matter, with only limited references to different perspectives.”
Ofcom said GB News “clearly endorsed the campaign” across its programming, including with a QR code that encouraged audiences to sign a petition.
In March last year, Ofcom found that GB News breached rules on potentially harmful content when the presenter Mark Steyn used official health data to draw misleading conclusions about the Covid-19 booster that “materially misled” the audience.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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