Lawyers for so-called champions of free speech GB News have sent a warning letter to The New World over our investigation into the channel’s lack of compliance with Ofcom regulations.
The four-page letter from RPC Legal accuses The New World of defamation and says it is “monitoring” our coverage. Alan Rusbridger’s reporting is, it states, “unsupported by any evidence, reputationally damaging and potentially harmful to GB News’ financial position.”
The letter says: “Your magazine is, of course, highly politicised. It has vigorously opposed Brexit and considers Nigel Farage an extremist. It has cast itself as a voice in ‘the battle for our future’ against right-wing nationalism.”
So far, so accurate. It continues:
“GB News has no problem with that; it supports a plurality of opinion in the media. But it appears you do not. Your position is clear: it is not enough merely to disagree with GB News; rather, GB News should not exist.”
It adds that our painstaking investigation, conducted by 20 senior journalists from across the political spectrum, is “an exercise in irresponsible journalism”.
This is not our position. As is abundantly clear in the investigation, we accuse GB News of systematically failing to comply with Ofcom’s legally binding code of impartiality and accuracy. Our investigation thoroughly and objectively details how this failure manifested itself across the 15 hours of broadcasting we monitored.
The New World’s investigation into GB News is the most thorough journalistic scrutiny the channel has been subjected to. The reports of the 20 journalists watching the channel are their honestly held opinions based on a factual assessment of what they saw. The programmes they scrutinised are all available for anyone to watch on the GB News YouTube channel.
There could be no clearer public interest than an investigation into whether the state regulator is able to fulfil its obligations and enforce its own rules on impartiality and accuracy.
Additionally, and despite offering GB News an opportunity to reply to our investigation, the letter says Alan Rusbridger and The New World “were quite deliberately depriving GB News of the opportunity to comment on your allegations, doubtless because you and Mr Rusbridger had no interest in hearing what GB News might have to say.” Again, not so. GB News’ right to reply stands.
Finally, and perhaps some might think in recognition of the hopelessness of its argument, the letter states: “Despite the defamation, bias and inaccuracies to which GB News has been subjected, GB News does not currently intend to bring legal action against you. It is confident of the soundness of its compliance procedures and does not need the judgment of a court to vindicate those.”
The New World stands by its reporting – and will continue to monitor GB News and its output, including a forthcoming collection of reports by you, our subscribers, which will be sent to Ofcom in the coming days.
GB News, with its vast financial and legal resources, joins Michelle Mone and Boris Johnson amongst others who have threatened us with legal consequences in order to influence our reporting. Like Mone and Johnson before them, they will discover we are determined to speak truth to power without fear or favour.
And if you want to help us do more of it, then subscribe. New subscribers will receive our special T-shirt “Is that true? Or did you hear it on GB News” while stocks last.
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