Time for Ofcom to take tougher action...
Right-wing Channel GB News, which has made a mockery of broadcasting rules, has had over 20,000 complaints made about it since its launch in 2021.
The shocking figures were revealed after a freedom of information request from the i, which found that in 2021, the year GB News was launched, Ofcom received 3,481 complaints – an average of around 290 complaints a month.
Between 2021 and until 12 March 2024, GB News has had a total of 21,671 complaints made against it.
The paper reports that overall, ‘complaints about news broadcasters have soared almost seven-fold since the launch of GB News and Talk TV’.
GB news is no stranger to controversy and has had a number of high profile incidents which have resulted in complaints being made against the channel, having platformed bigoted and racist views and conspiracy theories.
Last September, the regulator received almost 9,000 complaints following a section of GB News’ Dan Wootton Tonight after actor and political activist Laurence Fox went on a vile misogynistic rant about a female journalist.
Fox made a series of remarks about Ava Evans, the political correspondent for online news site Joe, during an episode of Dan Wootton Tonight on Tuesday, where he said: “Show me a self-respecting man that would like to climb into bed with that.”
Ofcom found that GB News had breached its broadcasting rules and that Fox’s comments were demeaning both to Ms Evans and women generally and were ‘clearly and unambiguously misogynistic.’
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.
Despite all of the complaints and breaches, GB News has shown no real commitment to change course. Maybe it’s time Ofcom took tougher action.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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