GB News has been fined £100,000 by Ofcom after it was found to have broken impartiality rules in an interview with Rishi Sunak earlier this year.
The media watchdog concluded that the channel had given the then prime minister a “mostly uncontested platform” to promote the policies and performance of his government as he answered questions put to him by a studio audience and a presenter.
Ofcom began the investigation into GB News three days after the airing of a programme on February 12, titled People’s Forum: The Prime Minister.
In a statement, Ofcom said: “We concluded that the then prime minister, Rishi 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 GBNews Limited. 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.”
Ofcom first found that the programme broke broadcasting rules in May, as it revealed that the episode received a total of 547 complaints.
It added that the hour-long show was “presented in the context of the forthcoming UK general election”, but there was “no issue with this programme’s editorial format in principle”.
GB News is challenging the breach decision by judicial review and Ofcom will not enforce the sanction decision until those proceedings are concluded.
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.
It’s chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos said Ofcom’s decision to impose a £100,000 fine on the media company is “a direct attack on free speech and journalism in the United Kingdom”.
“We believe these sanctions are unnecessary, unfair and unlawful,” he said in a statement.
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”.
In March, GB News was placed on notice that any repeated breaches of due impartiality rules “may result in the imposition of a statutory sanction”.
This followed Ofcom saying that three Tory MPs – former House of Commons leader Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, minister without portfolio Esther McVey and backbencher Philip Davies – “acted as newsreaders” across various programmes.
Ms McVey and Mr Davies, who are married, are no longer part of the GB News line-up and last hosted programmes on the channel last year.
