GB News hits back after breaching Ofcom impartiality rules

The episode of the GB News programme aired on July 7 and promoted a campaign branded Don’t Kill Cash which called on viewers to sign a petition pushing for the Government to introduce legislation to protect the status of cash as a widely accepted means of payment until at least 2050.

Ofcom confirmed today it received many complaints about the campaign and opened six investigations into various GB News programmes.

A spokesperson said: “Today’s case is the first of these investigations to conclude.”

They added: “We found that, at the time of broadcast, preserving access to cash – including whether to mandate its acceptance – was a matter of political controversy and a matter of current public policy.”

The investigation found the programme “failed to preserve due impartiality in its coverage of this matter”, with only limited references to different perspectives.

Ofcom has recorded a breach of Rules 5.4 and 5.5 of the Broadcasting Code against GB News.

The spokesperson added: “We will publish the outcome of our investigations into five other GB News programmes relating to this campaign in due course.”

Following the ruling, GB News issued a lengthy statement of its own which reads: “We are disappointed by Ofcom’s ruling that our campaign to protect cash for society’s most financially vulnerable people was a breach of the Broadcasting Code.

“Ofcom has not censured other UK broadcasters, including Sky News and the BBC, for running their own campaigns in the past.”

GB News’ Don’t Kill Cash petition gained more than 300,000 signatures, according to the broadcaster.

The statement added: “We disagree with Ofcom’s assertion that because the campaign was under the GB News banner, it represented the personal or self-interested view of anyone within the company. Nothing could be further from the truth.

“We maintain our campaign was not political and so did not consider it invoked due impartiality rules requiring substantially different views. The campaign received widespread support across the political spectrum.”

GB News said it noted Ofcom took no issues with the BBC campaign to fundraise for the NHS or “the Sky News campaign to change the way general elections are debated”.

It added: “We believe Ofcom has interpreted its rules extremely narrowly in this instance.”

Ofcom also said it received complaints in the first two weeks of July as 40 programmes contained references to the campaign.

GB News airs daily on Freeview, Sky and YouTube.