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View our privacy policyChallenging the rightwing channel broadcasting hate and political bias
CW: Hate speech, homophobia
The rightwing channel GB News regularly flouts standards on impartiality and broadcasts hate, which is unlawful. We’re putting pressure on the regulator and advertisers to take decisive action and hold GB News to account.
Broadcast that received more than 70,000 complaints over a lie linking the LGBTQ+ community to paedophilia will be subject to a formal investigation.
In early March 2024, Ofcom suggested that the rightwing broadcaster GB News doesn’t have to meet the same impartiality standards as broadcasters with a bigger audience. But we think this two-tier approach is unlawful.
Ofcom launches an investigation into GB News broadcasting homophobic hatred following a record number of complaints enabled by our campaign. The regulator says it will look into ‘comments made by the presenter related to the LGBTQ+ community’. GB News responds to Ofcom’s investigation by claiming to defend ‘free speech’.
We broaden the campaign to put pressure on organisations that fund GB News through advertising. One of the major advertisers on the channel is Sky, which also acts as a broker for other companies to advertise on GB News. Almost 20,000 people email Sky’s CEO demanding it stops funding hate on GB News, but the media giant declines to respond.
Good Law Project gathers 71,582 complaints from the public about GB News broadcasting hate and delivers them to Ofcom’s door. This is the highest volume of complaints ever seen by the regulator about a single programme, showing huge support for decisive action against GB News.
A presenter on GB News repeats a dangerous homophobic slur that links the LGBTQ+ community to paedophilia. By broadcasting this statement, GB News is wilfully flouting rules on protecting the public from harmful and offensive material in Ofcom’s broadcasting code.
Ofcom rules that a programme featuring the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, in a Q&A session breached rules on impartiality. The £100,000 fine was imposed because of the ‘seriousness and repeated nature of this breach’ of the code.
Good Law Project remains deeply concerned that GB News has faced no formal sanction, despite breaching Ofcom’s code on numerous occasions. We take legal advice and explore options for further action, but decide not to launch another legal challenge.
Ofcom responds to our threat of legal action and abandons the two-tier approach to impartiality touted by its CEO. Ofcom said the CEO’s remarks were ‘informal’ and ‘the same rules and assessment process apply to all broadcasters’.
GB News continues to break the rules on political bias in the lead-up to the general election, but is met with little action from the regulator. So Good Law Project teams up with the media expert Professor Julian Petley to pressure Ofcom to hold GB News to account. We take the first step in the legal process, calling on Ofcom to abolish any two-tier system and keep the channel in check.
Ofcom CEO implies that the regulator holds GB News to a lower standard on political bias because of its smaller audience. This two-tier approach to impartiality appears not only to contradict Ofcom’s own code, but also to breach the Communications Act 2003, making it unlawful.
