MEDIA watchdog Ofcom has launched an investigation into GB News after a programme carried discriminatory comments about LGBT people.
In January, thousands of people were prompted to complain to the regulator after comments from right-wing commentator Josh Howie on the Headliners programme.
Howie was discussing a US bishop after she had given a sermon to Donald Trump. Quoting a statement issued from her church which backed “the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons”, he added: “I just want to say that includes paedoooos."
One of Howie's co-presenters, speaking off screen, responded: "Yeah!"
Connecting homosexuality to paedophilia is a trope used by anti-LGBT campaigners, a pattern which was widely seen during the fight for equal rights in the later 20th century.
On Monday, Ofcom said it had launched an investigation into the comments. An Ofcom spokesperson said: “We are investigating whether this programme broke our rule which requires that material which may cause offence must be justified by the context.”
Ofcom received more than 1382 complaints about the Headliners show, with a total of 71,851 more submitted from activist group the Good Law Project, who started a petition online about the episode.
Elsewhere, however, the watchdog ended six investigations into GB News and other outlets after the High Court quashed its impartiality rulings over politicians acting as newsreaders.
The regulator said reviews into episodes of programmes fronted by Reform UK founder Nigel Farage on GB News and others would not go ahead.
These also included investigations into episodes of various programmes with former Tory minister Jake Berry, ex-MEP Alex Phillips and former deputy Reform UK leader David Bull on Talk, and Foreign Secretary David Lammy on LBC.
Ofcom said last week that it “withdrew the three other breach decisions against GB News”, which included episodes of programmes on the channel fronted by husband and wife team Esther McVey, a Tory MP, and Philip Davies, who was also a Conservative MP until the General Election.
Angelos Frangopoulos, the chief executive of GB News, welcomed the watchdog’s decision – but said he did “not believe that there was a breach of the rules” in the Headliners programme.
In February, High Court judge Mrs Justice Collins Rice said the regulator’s decisions were “vitiated by error of law” and that Ofcom “conflated a news programme and a current affairs programme” in its ruling about the two episodes of the State Of The Nation show from 2023.
Ofcom previously welcomed the ruling, and said it would “review and consult on proposed changes to the broadcasting code to restrict politicians from presenting news in any type of programme to ensure this is clear for all broadcasters”.
Frangopoulos said: “Since the recent landmark High Court ruling finding that Ofcom acted unlawfully, a total of 11 cases against GB News and other UK broadcasters have now either been quashed, unwound or abandoned.
“Following the withdrawal of five breach decisions against GB News, now Ofcom has revealed that it is ‘not pursuing’ the case against the GB News programme, Farage and five others from other UK broadcasters – another vindication of GB News editorial decision making.”
He added that they will “vigorously defend the channel and our presenters’ freedom of speech rights”.
