GB News asks High Court to block Ofcom sanctions for alleged rules breach
GB News has asked a High Court judge to temporarily block Ofcom from sanctioning it for what the regulator says would be the channel’s 12th breach of its code in less than two years.
The channel is seeking to challenge Ofcom’s provisional decision that a Q&A with then-prime minister Rishi Sunak, which aired on February 12, was a “serious” breach of its rules, and that attempts to adhere to them were “wholly insufficient”.
Pause
In a hearing on Thursday, lawyers for the broadcaster said that the regulator had acted unlawfully by finding that the breach was “serious and repeated”, and asked a judge to pause Ofcom’s “sanctions process”, pending it getting the green light to challenge the watchdog’s decision.
Mr Justice Chamberlain is expected to rule on whether GB News can challenge the decision, and whether Ofcom should be blocked from handing down its sanction in the meantime, on Thursday.
Tom Hickman KC, for the channel, said: “We say that by launching an investigation within three days, Ofcom failed to provide GB News a reasonable and fair opportunity to comply with (Ofcom’s rules).”
He continued: “It is well arguable that there is nothing that suggests Ofcom had any due regard to the impact of commencing an investigation or fully appreciated that it was possible at all for GB News to comply with (the rules).”
The programme at the centre of the case, titled People’s Forum: The Prime Minister, saw Mr Sunak answer questions from a studio audience and a presenter.
Mr Hickman said in written submissions that the presenter “made clear” that it was the channel’s intention to hold a similar interview with the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, but this did not take place.
Breach
Three days after the show aired, Ofcom told GB News that it was investigating the programme over a possible breach of its rules, and publicised the investigation on February 19.
In a statement on its website on May 20, Ofcom said that it believed the programme “broke broadcasting due impartiality rules” and that it was “starting the process for consideration of a statutory sanction” against GB News.
The regulator said that it received 547 complaints about the hour-long programme and that it found that the programme had not “challenged (Mr Sunak) or otherwise referred to significant alternative views”, and that GB News should have “taken additional steps” to ensure impartiality.
Ofcom can apply a range of sanctions to broadcasters who breach its code, including fines, directions not to repeat content or to broadcast a correction, and suspending licences.
The sanction for the GB News breach has not yet been published, but Ofcom provided a “preliminary view” to the channel in June this year.
Submission
Mr Hickman said in written submissions that Ofcom pledged last month not to publish the sanction before Thursday’s hearing and that publishing it would cause “irreparable damage” to the channel’s reputation.
But Anya Proops KC, for Ofcom, said in written submissions that the breach was the channel’s 12th since March last year and that it was “not arguable” that it had “erred in law” through its decision.
She continued that the bid to stop Ofcom from publishing the sanction was based on an “inevitably speculative presumption” of what the sanction would be, and that claims the channel would suffer reputational harm “do not withstand scrutiny”.
She said: “Enabling a broadcaster to pause Ofcom’s enforcement actions by challenging the underlying breach decision would have a seriously detrimental impact on Ofcom’s ability to discharge its statutory functions, and by extension on the weighty public interests served by the discharge of those functions.
“Even if publication of a sanction decision would cause some measure of harm to GB News, that harm is inevitably outweighed by the powerful countervailing public interest in ensuring the effective and timely regulation of broadcasters by Ofcom, and, relatedly, the maintenance of public confidence in such regulation.”
The hearing in London is due to conclude on Thursday.
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The reform conspiracy channel and ARTD sole source of “facts” should be well aware of what the regulations are. The amount they have racked up in a short space of time just shows they are not wanting or capable to adhere to the rules (they employ the staff, they should be across the brief). I think they think they are above the rules, and want to crack on spewing hate. They feature a lot on the ofcom site.
They should join Talk s**t in the wilderness of online obscurity where they won’t have to deal with Ofcom and they can really crank up the hate.
Funnily enough Murdoch saw he was losing loot hand over fist and pulled the plug on Talk. gbeebies is in the same boat, last estimate I saw was in the region of £60million+, who is taking this hit paying farage, 30p, mogg etc huge wages. Legatum Institute in there somewhere.
If Murdoch, being a hard nosed business man, is looking after his money, you have to assume this joke of a channel is a project someone is willing to lose a mint on and it is for the political hits it is aiming for, not journalistic integrity.
Is LK a mole, did she tip off Fat Shanks then cry oops !
I can’t ask the source of all sunlight such things,
I would rather become a Dame far into the future than get on the wrong side of Alex…
‘Irreparable damage to the channels’ reputation’?. It doesn’t need any help in that regard. I caught this programme by accident. The previous occupant of my hotel room had the TV tuned to GBeebies so when it came on, there it was so I carried on watching it. Arguably, there was balance of a fashion. The exiting audience interviews gave away that they were trying to gauge if Sunaks’ mob were nasty enough for them and if not, would vote for cuddly Nige. However, when it became clear that this was a niche freak show to the exclusion of all else,… Read more »