Ofcom won’t investigate TalkTV’s climate misinformation – we’re taking a stand

Ofcom has let TalkTV off the hook for misinformation and a lack of impartiality when discussing the environment.

Rupert Murdoch’s rightwing television station has been spewing false information, claiming that “CO2 is not a threat to the planet” and that the science behind it “doesn’t add up to a row of beans”. Its presenters have gone as far as to say that those who defend the environment are “cultish”, while claiming that we are “scaring children about something that is not going to happen” and that it is all a “deliberate effort to create fake anxiety”.

Stop Funding Heat submitted complaints over this misinformation, but Ofcom dismissed them without looking into them. Ofcom’s broadcasting standards state that all news must be “reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality” – so why is the regulator letting climate misinformation go unchecked?

We’ve written to Ofcom on behalf of Stop Funding Heat to demand answers. We’ve asked Ofcom to give reasons why it has rejected the complaints. And if those answers are unsatisfactory, we’ll be looking into taking legal action.

Ofcom has 14 days to respond. We need to put as much pressure on the regulator as possible to make sure it listens. Because it’s about time that climate misinformation was taken seriously.

• Email Ofcom now to make them hold TalkTV to account.