UK: GB News Threatened With Sanctions Over Impartiality Breach

Facts

• UK media regulator Ofcom announced on Monday that GB News could face statutory sanctions, after a monthslong investigation into a People's Forum episode featuring Prime Minister Rishi Sunak found that impartiality rules were violated.¹
• Ofcom added that a decision will be made within 60 working days, with potential punishments including a fine, forcing the channel to broadcast a correction, or even suspending or revoking its license.²
• The hour-long Q&A session aired on Feb. 12, and reportedly triggered 547 complaints over concerns that GB News failed to present an appropriate weight to viewpoints other than Conservative ahead of the general election.³
• Ofcom concluded that neither the audience nor the presenter, former Sky News host Stephen Dixon, were able to challenge the prime minister's responses and plans, among other issues with the program — the audience for being unable to challenge the prime minister's responses and the presenter for not pushing back to any 'meaningful extent.'⁴
• Since GB News first began broadcasting in 2021, the media regulator has found that the channel has breached its rules 13 times, with another seven investigations still underway.⁵
• Previously, Ofcom faced criticism for allowing serving members of parliament to present on GB News, only on the condition that they refrain from acting as if they were unbiased newsreaders or interviewers.⁶

Sources: ¹BBC News, ²Reuters, ³The Telegraph, ⁴Guardian, ⁵Financial Times and ⁶Independent.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by The Conversation. GB News has a long record of infringing on rules of due impartiality, despite Ofcom adopting a flexible approach to interpret them, so now the time has come for sanctions to be imposed on the channel. As the American experience teaches, undermining broadcast impartiality can only increase divisive influence on the political and media environment.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by GB News. These findings from the media regulator against GB News are completely unreasonable, as the People's Forum allowed undecided voters to challenge Sunak and keep him under constant pressure with robust questions about a wide range of issues. Sanctioning GB News only reveals that Ofcom's true goal is to silence the population.

Predictions