Why is the media regulator reinterpreting statutory rules on impartiality to allow partisan politicians to present news programmes on GB News?
In May this year, Ofcom launched a consultation on a proposal to amend its own Broadcasting Code on impartiality. That code is derived from Ofcom’s statutory duty, enshrined in the 2003 Communications Act, to ensure that “news included in television and radio services is presented with due impartiality”.
The purpose of its proposed amendment, it said, was to “restrict politicians from presenting news in any type of television or radio programme”. Ofcom had believed that this restriction already applied, but lost a High Court case brought by GB News in 2024 when the court determined that the rule applies only to politicians presenting news in “news programmes”. Ofcom, therefore, proposed to clarify its code to ensure that “no politician may be used as a newsreader, news interviewer or news reporter in any type of programme unless, exceptionally, it is editorially justified”.
On the face of it, this looked like Ofcom closing a loophole – being exploited by GB News systematically to break longstanding impartiality rules – which would ensure that the spirit of the original legislation would be followed. In fact, exactly the opposite appears to be true: Ofcom’s plan is now to set in stone an arbitrary distinction between “news” programmes and “current affairs” programmes that would place no restrictions on politicians presenting the latter. Its consultation states explicitly that, outside of news programmes, “there is no Ofcom rule that prevents a politician from hosting or appearing on a television or radio programme… This means that politicians are allowed to present current affairs programmes such as audience phone-ins and discussion programmes”.
The absurdity of Ofcom’s logic has been laid bare by content analysis carried out by Stewart Purvis and Chris Banatvala. Purvis was editor, then chief executive of ITN for 15 years before becoming Ofcom partner for content and standards in 2007. Banatvala was Ofcom’s founding director of standards during the 2000s and was responsible for drafting its first Broadcasting Code. These are very senior former executives in news and regulation who should be taken very seriously.
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Continue reading in the British Journalism Review.
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