TalkTV: Ofcom bows to pressure

We said we’d sue over Ofcom’s decision to dismiss 22,000 complaints about transphobia on TalkTV – now the regulator has caved.

Ofcom has reversed course. After dismissing complaints about Rupert Murdoch’s transphobic TalkTV, the regulator will now be launching an investigation into the rightwing broadcaster. 

In July, over 22,000 people complained to Ofcom over TalkTV’s repeated transphobia. The regulator’s response was that “these programmes did not raise substantive issues warranting further investigation”.

But we had monitored its output for July 2025, a month in which it carried 11 discussions on trans people. And in every discussion, its hosts and guests consistently spouted transphobic views. TalkTV’s stance mirrors the broader editorial position of its sister newspaper The Times, whose toxic and intellectually dishonest campaign against trans people we believe to be a contributor to the rise in hate crime against them.

We believe Ofcom’s decision was unlawful. We believe it failed in its duty to give adequate reasons for refusing to investigate the complaints and that its decision was “irrational.” So we told them we were preparing legal action. 

And now, bowing to pressure, the regulator has agreed to withdraw its decision and reconsider

It wrote to us saying: “Ofcom has decided, exceptionally, to withdraw the 11 decisions and to consider afresh whether your complaints raise potentially substantive issues under the Broadcasting Code which warrant investigation by Ofcom.” And it promised to “publish our new decisions, with reasons, in the Bulletin in due course in order to provide guidance to broadcasters and further clarity to the public.”

We will, of course, scrutinise those decisions carefully and will not hesitate to take further action if Ofcom gets the law wrong again.