Regulator drops investigations after GB news challenged rulings relating to Jacob Rees-Mogg reading news updates
Britain’s media regulator is scrambling to close a legal loophole that allows politicians on GB News and other broadcasters to in effect act as newsreaders.
Ofcom has now dropped 11 investigations or rulings relating to incidents in which politicians read out news items – a practice it believed breached impartiality rules. Most of the cases relate to GB News, but others relate to TalkTV and LBC.
The cases have been dropped after GB News successfully challenged two recent Ofcom rulings relating to the former Conservative cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg over reading updates about news stories.
The high court ruled that he did not breach the rules because he was presenting a “current affairs” programme, rather than a news programme. Ofcom is now conducting a rapid review of those regulations to ensure that all programmes are covered by the same impartiality rules.
The regulator said: “Ofcom will now review [the relevant rules] and consult on proposed changes to restrict politicians from presenting news in any type of programme. We aim to move as quickly as possible with the publication of this consultation so broadcasters should expect it later in the spring.”
An Ofcom review of a similar incident involving the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, on GB News has now been cancelled, alongside five investigations into shows featuring the former Conservative minister Jake Berry, ex-MEP Alex Phillips and former deputy Reform UK leader David Bull on Talk, as well as Labour’s David Lammy on LBC.
Ofcom had already withdrawn three other decisions against GB News in light of the high court’s findings, including over programmes presented by the Conservative MP Esther McVey and the former Tory MP Philip Davies. Broadcasting rules state that the news must be “presented with due impartiality”, and that politicians cannot act as newsreaders except when “editorially justified”.
Angelos Frangopoulos, the chief executive of GB News, said that Ofcom’s decision to withdraw more cases was “another vindication of GB News editorial decision-making”.
Nevertheless, Ofcom also said it was launching an investigation into the GB News programme Headliners, in which a presenter said that the “full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons” at a church would “include paedos”. The presenter, Josh Howie, said the comments were part of a “comedy show”, in which “three comedians make jokes as we review the next day’s newspapers”.
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Frangopoulos said the programme has been “subjected to a coordinated political campaign by far-left pressure groups”. He said: “Their actions and direct lobbying of Ofcom should concern all of us who believe in free speech in our country. These groups shamelessly masquerade as being for the ‘good’ but their words and actions are filled with hate.
“It’s time to call out this anti-democratic behaviour which includes our staff being falsely accused of homophobia – nothing could be further from the truth. We will not be silenced by these self-serving attacks – and we will vigorously defend the channel and our presenters’ freedom of speech rights.”
