'It's not GB News that should be in the dock - it's Ofcom' - Sir Gerald Howarth
Ofcom said GB News broke impartiality rules during People’s Forum: The Prime Minister programme
PA
Ever since it launched, GB News has been the persistent target of attacks by other broadcasters determined to rub out a genuinely novel, engaging and forthright channel.
Today’s news that Ofcom has sonorously determined that GB News broke its ‘broadcasting due impartiality rules’ therefore comes as little surprise.
The regulator concluded that in the case of the People’s Forum: The Prime Minister programme ‘we consider that the Prime Minister had a mostly uncontested platform to promote the policies and performance of his Government in a period preceding a UK General Election.’
Yet, barely a month ago, Lord Moore sat on the panel of an Any Questions? Show in the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham (a nice neutral venue) where he was subjected to an unremitting barrage of left-wing hostility. As he wrote in the Daily Telegraph, “If studio audiences are unrepresentative, how can the BBC perform its impartiality function?”
GB News People's Forum with the Prime MinisterGB NewsGB News is to be subjected to sanctions (as yet unspecified) as the result of just 547 complaints whilst the state broadcaster ploughs on with its unremitting obsession with race, net zero and utterly one-sided presentation of the Gaza conflict.
Yet, in a survey conducted by Ofcom itself on the BBC, they found that 11% of adult UK viewers/listeners complained but just under two-thirds did not go on to make a complaint, the main barriers to complaining directly to the BBC being assumptions that ‘it would not make a difference’ (42%) or the complaint ‘would not be taken seriously’ (29%). Just under a quarter (23%) thought it would be too much effort.
This case is not just a matter of importance to GB News and its followers. Freedom of expression is one of the most cherished values in our country; indeed, it was a key component of the Bill of Rights 1688 which remains on the Statute Book.
So, Ofcom, entirely content to let the BBC off the hook, has chosen to bend to pressure from the broadcasting establishment and take punitive action against GB News which, depending on the severity of any sanctions it chooses to impose on the channel, could be forced off the air in the run up to the general election, thus depriving the electorate of a truly valuable source of information.
Sir Gerald Howarth is a former Conservative MP and Minister
PA
Meanwhile, the BBC, funded by a mandatory tax on all who own a television and able to seek criminal sanctions against non-payers, is not subject to the same Ofcom rules as GB News (it is allowed to operate its own complaints procedure).
But why should a privately-funded broadcaster have to be ‘impartial’ when other forms of the media, such as the newspapers, are under no such obligation.
Besides, the channel has a range of presenters including my former Labour Parliamentary colleague, Gloria de Piero, as well as other non-Tories.
This is completely unacceptable and constitutes a direct assault on freedom of expression. Viewers unhappy with GB News can switch off at no cost, unlike those who object to the BBC’s treatment of political issues who can indeed switch off but still have to pay the tax.
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The forthcoming general election is going to be extremely important with major national and international issues at stake.
Anything which diminishes or restricts the availability of information to the British people will constitute a naked attack on our democracy.
I am genuinely surprised that Ofcom’s Chairman, Lord Grade of Yarmouth, whom I know and respect, should have allowed this issue to escalate, but it’s not GB News which should be in the dock; it’s Ofcom.