Good Law Project is taking Ofcom to court over failure to stop hate and misinformation at TalkTV
Ofcom are “basically giving rightwing channels a free pass”, a Good Law Project lawyer has said
Legal campaigners The Good Law Project are suing Ofcom over its failure to investigate TalkTV for broadcasting “transphobic hate and misinformation”.
Last year, a Good Law Project investigation found 11 programmes broadcast by Rupert Murdoch’s TalkTV where presenters and guests had “spouted hate about the trans community”.
Ofcom received more than 21,000 complaints from the Good Law Project and its supporters about the 11 programmes.
The Ofcom broadcasting code says that when discussing matters of “political controversy” broadcasters must exercise “due impartiality”.
It also states that content must protect viewers from “harmful and/or offensive material”.
In March, Ofcom launched an investigation into one of the TalkTV programmes, but refused to look into the rest.
Ofcom investigated a discussion between TalkTV’s Ian Collins and Sex Matters’s Helen Joyce on 23 June 2025, when the host suggested that “non-binary is just an invented thing”.
Joyce also said it was an “actual fact” that “One hundred per cent of everyone who’s ever been pregnant is a woman whether they like it or not.”
On another show on 21 June last year, presenter Alex Phillips said it was “sick” and “a perversion quite frankly” for trans women to be able to take hormones to breastfeed.
Phillips also said trans-inclusive policies were allowing “hulking great perverts [to go] into children’s toilets”.
On another programme, Julia Hartley-Brewer said she considered it “a matter of fact” that “trans women are not women because they’re men”.
TalkTV host Kevin O’Sullivan misgendered a trans NHS worker, Rose Henderson, referring to her as “a bloke who wanted to invade your private safe female space”.
Nurses who worked with Henderson took legal action against the NHS trust, stating that they opposed her being able to use the single-sex changing rooms.
Matthew Gill, a lawyer at Good Law Project, said that Ofcom are “basically giving rightwing channels a free pass”.
“The far right can only spread their toxic lies because of platforms backed by billionaires,” Gill said. “So we need a regulator that takes it seriously when channels break their duty to provide balance. It’s time for Ofcom to stop rightwing media barons broadcasting hate.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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