“We can’t have foreign-funded broadcasters poisoning the national conversation with these ugly lies. Ofcom needs to say ‘Stop’.”
A coalition of LGBT+ groups and the Good Law Project have joined forces to urge Ofcom to take action over a homophobic broadcast aired by GB News.
The Good Law Project, LGBT Consortium, TransActual, Trans Media Watch and others made a formal submission to Ofcom’s investigation into GB News.
The submission argues that the regulator should sanction GB News for breaches of the broadcasting code, including failing to protect its audience from harmful material and the proscription of hate speech.
The media regulator opened an investigation into GB News in March after presenter Josh Howie made a homophobic slur linking the LGBTQ+ community to paedophilia.
Discussing a bishop’s sermon urging Donald Trump to “have mercy” on marginalised communities, Howie said that when the bishop’s diocese “talks about the ‘full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons” that “includes paedos, if you’re doing the full inclusion there’.”
More than 70,000 people used an online tool created by the Good Law Project to complain about the homophobic broadcast, making it the biggest complaint Ofcom has ever received. Yet, Paul Marshall’s GB News still stands by the content.
Jo Maugham, executive director of Good Law Project, said this “appalling” broadcast cuts to the heart of British values.
“Britain is a kind country, with kind people, who try to do the right thing,” Maugham said. “We don’t want and we can’t have foreign-funded broadcasters poisoning the national conversation with these ugly lies. Ofcom needs to say ‘Stop’.”
Chair of Trans Media watch, Jane Fae, argued it should be “an open and shut case”.
“Our fear, though,” Fae said, “is that as so many times before, Ofcom will find sufficient wiggle room to allow it to let GB News off with mild censure, and no real consequence.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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