[strollfan]

OFCOM has found 5 programmes presented by politicians in breech of impartiality rules. They've fined them a total of £0.

www.ofcom.org.uk 

I do question the wisdom from Ofcom of five independent breaches of the rules not carrying any statutory penalty; it seems to be a slap on the wrist for a series of repeated rule breaks of the same form.

[matthieu1221]

The easiest way out would be to not have sitting politicians present or at the very least have a non-politician lead the show and the politician could be a panelist but frankly the rules need a rewrite to scrap this distinction between news and current affairs (or make it far clearer what the limits of current affairs are vis a vis news) and have a blanket ban.

[Adsales]

Ah yes but they've given them a stern warning so that's ok then.....


Thing is it's a quite simple rule, and other broadcasters - mainly LBC, but also Talk - manage to have politicians present programmes in a way that doesn't breach the rules.

GB News can shrug this off now but once the election is called rules about what can and can't be broadcast get a heck of a lot stricter and the sanctions more severe. They're going to have to get their act together

Well quite. And the fact that their defence cites the European Convention of Human Rights (THAT ECHR!) is laughable. I mean the irony given the people who run the channel and those who present on it.

[Keith]

I do question the wisdom from Ofcom of five independent breaches of the rules not carrying any statutory penalty; it seems to be a slap on the wrist for a series of repeated rule breaks of the same form.

These incidents were from May to June last year. I believe it was around the same time they started introducing proper news bulletins.

I'm guessing that GB News argued that since those incidents they've introduced separate top-of-the-hour bulletins. As these are hosted by a separate newsreader from a different part of the studio, they could claim they've already made changes. OFCOM appear to have noted that since they started investigating only one further incident occurred.

GB News' public response to the report is presumably aimed more towards appeasing their viewers. Meanwhile they've taken steps to separate the 'news' from 'current affairs'. They've also cut ties with Lawrence Fox and Dan Wootton after on-air incidents, despite criticising OFCOM today over their obligation "to promote free speech and media plurality, and to ensure that alternative voices are heard".

[Division2023]

These incidents were from May to June last year. I believe it was around the same time they started introducing proper news bulletins.

I'm guessing that GB News argued that since those incidents they've introduced separate top-of-the-hour bulletins. As these are hosted by a separate newsreader from a different part of the studio, they could claim they've already made changes. OFCOM appear to have noted that since they started investigating only one further incident occurred.

GB News' public response to the report is presumably aimed more towards appeasing their viewers. Meanwhile they've taken steps to separate the 'news' from 'current affairs'. They've also cut ties with Lawrence Fox and Dan Wootton after on-air incidents, despite criticising OFCOM today over their obligation "to promote free speech and media plurality, and to ensure that alternative voices are heard".

News bulletins started around autumn 2021.

[London Lite]

Ah yes but they've given them a stern warning so that's ok then.....


Thing is it's a quite simple rule, and other broadcasters - mainly LBC, but also Talk - manage to have politicians present programmes in a way that doesn't breach the rules.

GB News can shrug this off now but once the election is called rules about what can and can't be broadcast get a heck of a lot stricter and the sanctions more severe. They're going to have to get their act together

And that's going to be a major issue for GBN when their USP is controversial discussion, nor can they use their sitting MP talent during that period.

So they'll either have to suddenly become a lot more mainstream or ramp up the culture wars content that doesn't clash with the election period.

[eyeTV]

These incidents were from May to June last year. I believe it was around the same time they started introducing proper news bulletins.

I'm guessing that GB News argued that since those incidents they've introduced separate top-of-the-hour bulletins. As these are hosted by a separate newsreader from a different part of the studio, they could claim they've already made changes. OFCOM appear to have noted that since they started investigating only one further incident occurred.

Part of the issue was these serving politicians are delivering breaking news.

Given that the discussion programmes are live, breaking news can happen any time so presumably they are going to need to hand over to the bulletin reader at these points (do they do this already?) or not cover it at all.

[James]

presumably they are going to need to hand over to the bulletin reader at these points (do they do this already?)

They do this already, but then the politician will continue with analysis on the breaking story. I think that's where the problem lies.

The news bulletin teams don't appear equipped to do anything beyond the hourly/half-hourly bulletins, and a summary of a breaking story, which also isn't ideal.

[leewilliams]

GB News can shrug this off now but once the election is called rules about what can and can't be broadcast get a heck of a lot stricter and the sanctions more severe. They're going to have to get their act together

This should be seen through the prism of GBN wanting to have this fight:

x.com 

The “plucky underdog” narrative is very important to the channel in terms of increasing viewer financial support - if you clic on any of its web articles a few seconds later you’re now greeted with this box:

i.postimg.cc 

IMG 4538 — Postimages
Upload Upload by URL Website plugins Windows App Log inSign up Zoom Download ori…
  Source: postimg.cc

[Adsales]

They do this already, but then the politician will continue with analysis on the breaking story. I think that's where the problem lies.

The news bulletin teams don't appear equipped to do anything beyond the hourly/half-hourly bulletins, and a summary of a breaking story, which also isn't ideal.

That's a in-house created problem due to the simple fact that a huge amount of their "talent" are serving MPs. Of course it's also not only the fact that those MPs "analyse" the breaking news stories but that they can't help themselves to insert their own opinion (numerous examples in the detailed Ofcom reports), which naturally means that not only is news presented by politicians (against the rules) but it is presented in an improper, imbalanced and biased way (of course also against the rules).