The New World’s GB News investigation raised at PMQs

The prime minister on Wednesday was forced to respond to the findings of a special investigation by The New World on Ofcom’s failure to tackle repeated and flagrant breaches of its broadcasting code by GB News.

The New World assembled a team of more than twenty journalists – with experience at publications and outlets across the political spectrum, and in media regulation – to review fifteen hours of GB News footage, uncovering dozens of apparent breaches of Ofcom regulations on impartiality and accuracy

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey presented Keir Starmer with the dossier’s findings, asking to explain whether he thought the rules were unfit for purpose, or Ofcom was simply failing in its duty to enforce them.

“A New World investigation into GB News has found hundreds of shocking breaches of the rules of impartiality and accuracy, yet Ofcom has repeatedly refused to take action,” Davey told a packed House of Commons chamber. “Andrew Neil says just as Fox basically became the channel of Donald Trump, it is clear they have turned GB News into the Reform channel.

“Mr Speaker, we cannot let GB News propaganda turn our great country into their version of Trump’s America. Either the government rules aren’t fit for purpose, or Ofcom isn’t properly enforcing them. Prime minister, which is it?”

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Alan Rusbridger

The prime minister somewhat limply batted the question aside. “He’s right to raise an important question of free speech and our media,” he said. “It is a matter for Ofcom and it’s important we let them deal with it.”

However, pressure on Ofcom is mounting from all sides. Asked by former Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger to review footage of a GB News interview with Donald Trump, Ofcom’s founding director of standards Chris Banatvala – who wrote its very first broadcasting code of standards – called it “the most nakedly partial interview I think I’ve ever seen”.

“This was a test case for how Ofcom regulates broadcasters on due impartiality. It has failed that test,” he added. “It now appears that Ofcom has abandoned any pretence that meaningful regulation of broadcast content is still being maintained.”

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Banatvala, a broadcaster with decades of experience before he joined the regulator, went further in an extended social media post following the publication of the special report. “It now appears that Ofcom has abandoned any pretence that meaningful regulation of broadcast content is still being maintained,” he wrote.

“There may come a time when the consensus around accuracy and impartiality no longer holds. But that is a debate we must have openly, and one that should ultimately be decided by our elected representatives.

“At present, however, change appears to be happening by stealth, with Ofcom effectively accepting that impartiality is no longer required and that misleading content can be broadcast without proper checks or challenges.”

Peter Oborne, the former chief political commentator of the Daily Telegraph described The New World’s reporting as “a massively consequential investigation by Alan Rusbridger into GB News: how ‘one political party in Britain has effectively ended up with its own television station’,” adding that it “raises deep questions about hi-jacking of British media/political culture”.

You can read Alan Rusbridger’s full exposé on Ofcom and GB News here, and review the full dossier produced by the twenty-strong team of independent journalists here.