Ofcom said it has imposed a £100,000 fine on GB News for “breaking due impartiality rules” following a question and answer-style debate with former prime minister Rishi Sunak earlier this year.
The media watchdog began an investigation into GB News three days after the airing of a programme on February 12 titled People’s Forum: The Prime Minister, which saw Mr Sunak answer questions from a studio audience and a presenter.
GB News chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos said the channel is challenging the “unnecessary, unfair and unlawful” Ofcom ruling in the courts.
Ofcom said the programme People’s Forum: The Prime Minister broke ‘due impartiality rules’ by giving Rishi Sunak a ‘mostly uncontested platform’ (GB News/Matt Pover/PA)
In a statement, Ofcom said Mr Sunak “had a mostly uncontested platform to promote the policies and performance of his Government in a period preceding a UK general election, in breach of Rules 5.11 and 5.12 of the Broadcasting Code”.
“Given the seriousness and repeated nature of this breach, Ofcom has imposed a financial penalty of £100,000 on GB News Limited,” it added.
“We have also directed GB News to broadcast a statement of our findings against it, on a date and in a form determined by us.
“GB News is challenging our original breach decision in this case by judicial review, which we are defending. Ofcom will not enforce this sanction decision until those proceedings are concluded.”
The rules state that “due impartiality must be preserved on matters of major political and industrial controversy” and “an appropriately wide range of significant views” should be included.
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The channel previously lost a High Court challenge to temporarily block Ofcom from sanctioning it, with GB News’ lawyers arguing that it would cause “irreparable damage” to its reputation.
In October, Mr Justice Chamberlain said the “likely impact” on the channel had been “overstated”, but gave it the go-ahead to challenge the finding that it had breached Ofcom’s rules in the High Court.
Earlier this year, the channel was put “on notice” that more breaches of due impartiality rules “may result in the imposition of a statutory sanction”, following then-sitting MPs, and a Conservative minister being found to have broken rules on politicians “acting as newsreaders”.
In a statement, Mr Frangopoulos called Ofcom’s decision “a direct attack on free speech and journalism in the United Kingdom”.
He said: “We believe these sanctions are unnecessary, unfair and unlawful.
“The High Court has already granted GB News permission to bring a judicial review to challenge Ofcom’s decision that the programme was in breach of due impartiality requirements.
“The sanction proposed by Ofcom is therefore still subject to that legal challenge.
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“The plan to sanction GB News flies in the face of Ofcom’s duty to act fairly, lawfully and proportionately to safeguard free speech, particularly political speech and on matters of public interest.”
The statement continued: “We have believed from the very start the People’s Forum was an important piece of public interest programming, and that appropriate steps were taken to ensure due impartiality and compliance with the Broadcasting Code.
“It was designed to allow members of the public to put their own questions directly to leading politicians.”
He added that the channel decided to be “regulated and we understand our obligations under” the Broadcasting Code, and believes that Ofcom is “obliged by law to uphold freedom of expression and apply its rules fairly and lawfully”.
Mr Frangopoulos said: “We will continue to fearlessly champion freedom, for our viewers, for our listeners, and for everyone in the United Kingdom. As we have all seen, this is needed more than ever.”
GB News chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos said the channel will challenge the ruling, calling it ‘unnecessary, unfair and unlawful’ (Dominic Lipinski/PA)
In its original ruling, Ofcom said the episode with Mr Sunak was “presented in the context of the forthcoming UK general election”, which had not yet been announced but was set to take place within months, and did not have an “appropriately wide range of significant viewpoints”.
It said there was “no issue with this programme’s editorial format in principle”, and that GB News should have taken “additional steps to mitigate” risks because of the “very high compliance” needed.
In March, Ofcom said GB News violated due impartiality rules after some programmes featuring Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and Sir Philip Davies along with then-Conservative minister Esther McVey.
Married couple Ms McVey, who retained her Tory seat during the election, and ex-Tory backbencher Sir Philip are no longer part of the GB News line-up.
Ofcom has one open investigation against the broadcaster following a probe into a programme fronted by Nigel Farage, who became a Reform UK MP this year.
The January 17 episode of Mr Farage on the channel is being looked at over whether it broke rules “requiring news and current affairs to be presented with due impartiality, and preventing politicians from acting as news presenters”.
Last year, Ofcom imposed financial penalties of £25,000 each for religious satellite channel Loveworld and Bauer Radio.
Bauer Radio was sanctioned after it stopped broadcasting Absolute Radio’s national AM service before the end of its licence period.
Ofcom said that presenters on Loveworld made “a number of unevidenced, materially misleading and potentially harmful statements” about Covid-19 during two episodes of its current affairs show, Full Disclosure.
That same year, the watchdog decided to revoke the licence of RT (Russia Today) UK, due to “repeated compliance concerns”, and following fines of £200,000 for “previous due impartiality breaches”.
RT was off air in the UK, due to sanctions related to Russia invading Ukraine.