GB News “accounted for almost 50 per cent of all mentions of Muslims or Islam on UK news channels” in a two-year period, a study has found.
The new report from the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM), which is run by the Muslim Council of Britain, compared two years of output from the right-wing channel against competitors Sky News and BBC News.
It highlighted instances where GB News had played down racism, “dressed [it] up as humour”, or allowed “divisive polemics” to go unchallenged, concluding ultimately that GB News is “an anti-Muslim hate channel”.
In one instance noted in the report from April 2024, a GB News contributor went unchallenged after saying that “there’s no such thing as Islamophobic” during a discussion on a social media video showing women in Romford, Essex being attacked as “Muslim c***s”, “cancers”, and told to “f*** off out of England”.
Another incident, coincidentally also from April 2024 but on a different topic, saw GB News host Patrick Christys paint Muslims as part of a “Trojan horse” looking to enter the UK to overthrow the British way of life.
The report also noted that conspiracy theories such as a "two-tier society" favouring Muslims and "Great Replacement Theory" were used to stoke division.
The CfMM concluded: “Over a two-year period, GB News mentioned Muslims or Islam more than 17,000 times in its output, accounting for almost 50% of total mentions on UK news channels. BBC News and Sky News accounted for 32% and 21% respectively. Specific shows that are particularly obsessed include Headliners and Patrick Christys Tonight.
“Islamophobia has been referenced on GB News on 1180 occasions accounting for 60% of all mentions when compared with BBC News and Sky News. Yet, rather than reporting on the very real and everyday cases of anti-Muslim hatred, GB News stories overwhelmingly are geared towards rubbishing the concept of Islamophobia.”
A third conclusion, which was also reached following analysis by former ITN editor-in-chief and Ofcom partner for content and standards Stewart Purvis, was that GB News had framed Muslims as perpetrators and not victims during the far-right riots in England and Northern Ireland over the summer.
Purvis wrote: “The CfMM report creates a clear challenge to Ofcom: has its deregulated model for broadcast news created an unintended consequence? Can a broadcaster be allowed to try to build its audience and political influence by a consistently negative portrayal of a minoritised ethnic community?”
The CfMM report calls on Ofcom and politicians to act to prevent GB News from continuing to broadcast what it described as “hate sermons”.
CfMM director Rizwana Hamid said: “The volume of anti-Muslim hate on GB News and Ofcom’s reluctance to regulate its harmful content has meant that politicians and commentators have been give carte blanche to malign Muslims and Islam in a way that no other channel does.
“A robust regulator should demand that the channel performs according to long-established codes for broadcasters and enforce impartiality regulations.”
Tory peer Sayeeda Warsi also said it is “imperative that both the regulator and the government take decisive action to ensure broadcasting platforms are not used to fuel hatred and extremism that plays out as violent disorder on the streets of Britain”.
In a foreword to the report, former BBC broadcaster Gavin Esler added: “We need a regulator prepared to regulate. Freedom of speech does not include the freedom to stoke fears, encourage resentment and divide us among ourselves.”
GB News issued a furious statement in response to the report, claiming it was an attack on free speech.
It said: “This inaccurate and defamatory report is nothing more than a cynical, self-serving attempt to silence free speech. It proves exactly why a news organisation like GB News needs to exist and why it is succeeding.
“We are concerned that at no point did this project of the Muslim Council of Britain contact GB News or its presenters to allow them to respond to these highly defamatory allegations.”
As an aside, former ITN chief Purvis noted in commentary included in the report that GB News had never contacted former SNP leader Humza Yousaf despite a report in which he was accused of “race-baiting”.
Purvis said that if Yousaf “were to complain under Ofcom regulation ‘Section 7 (Fairness)’ I believe he should have a very strong case”.
An Ofcom spokesperson said: “All regulated broadcasters must comply with our broadcasting rules. We enforce these rules fairly and proportionately, acting independently and impartially at all times.
“We have found GB News in breach of our rules 12 times, and recently imposed a £100,000 financial penalty on GB News for breaking due impartiality rules.”
