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GB News gets away with more than BBC as fewer people watch, suggests Ofcom boss

The Ofcom boss has been accused of granting GB News a “free pass” on bias after suggesting the channel is held to lower impartiality standards than the BBC because it has fewer viewers.

Melanie Dawes, CEO of the broadcasting watchdog, said the BBC, ITV and Sky News should be held to a higher standard than channels with a much smaller audience, like GB News.

Ofcom is facing pressure to take tougher action over GB News after saying it has “significant concerns” about the editorial control of its live output.

Its rebuke over Laurence Fox’s “misogynistic” comments about journalist Ava Evans on a show presented by Dan Wootton was the sixth occasion GB News has been found in breach of broadcasting rules.

The channel, which escaped a fine, has been asked to attend a meeting at Ofcom to discuss “compliance practices”, the second time it has been called into the regulator’s offices.

Ms Dawes was challenged over Ofcom’s approach to GB News – which lets politicians like Lee Anderson and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg present their own shows – when she recently gave a lecture to an Oxford University audience of academics and broadcasting executives.

She said due impartiality in news and current affairs on TV was “very, very important” but it was “not an absolute test of equal balance”.

Ofcom regulates impartiality “in a way that’s appropriate for the audience expectation, in a way that’s appropriate for the subject matter”.

“And the standard for someone like the BBC, which reaches still 70 per cent of the TV viewing audience, (for) the news is a different one from that of a channel that has an audience of maybe four or five per cent of the viewing public. We expect different things. And I think I think that’s appropriate.”

She said BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky News should continue to be “scrupulous” in their pursuit of impartiality, reflected in “high levels of trust” among viewers.

But “there are other channels that can present the news from a particular perspective” as long as they present a “sufficient range of views” across their programmes “rather than just one single view,” Ms Dawes added.

It has led to Ofcom being criticised for appearing to offer a “two tier” approach to bias depending on viewership.

Stewart Purvis, former editor of ITN and Channel 4 News, told i: “The rules on broadcast impartiality seem to be becoming like a motorway – we all think the speed limit is 70mph but it turns out that if you have a bad record of driving offences you can go faster than everybody else.”

Julian Petley, honorary professor of journalism at Brunel University London, said: “Ofcom appears to have decided, with no public consultation, to radically change the way in which it interprets the ‘due impartiality’ requirements of its Broadcasting Code.

“It has allowed GB News to make a complete mockery of the notion of impartiality of any kind.”

John Mair, author of How Do We Pay For The BBC after 2027?, said: “I was surprised at Dame Melanie giving GB News such a free pass. There can only be one playing field for british broadcasters in terms of impartiality regardless of how big or small their audiences are.”

Giving the Philip Geddes Memorial Lecture, Ms Dawes also suggested that Nigel Farage could continue presenting his GB News show during the run-up to the general election, if he does not stand as an MP for his Reform UK party.

She said: “If you are obviously politically affiliated, then to meet the due impartiality test, that programme’s got to work a bit harder. Because otherwise there is a risk that views will go unchallenged. It’s narrower. And I think the stakes are then higher in an election year.”

His shows would have to include a range of political views to stay on air, she suggested.

Ofcom said its rules requiring “due impartiality” applied equally to all broadcasters and Ms Dawes was not signalling a new approach to regulating news channels.

A spokesperson said: “Our Code makes clear that the approach to due impartiality may vary according to the nature of the subject, the type of programme and channel, and the likely expectation of the audience.

“We take into account all these important contextual factors in deciding whether or not a programme is duly impartial.”

The spokesperson added: “Our rules apply equally to all broadcasters. Crucially, in applying these rules, we are required by law to take into account broadcasters’ editorial freedom and their viewers’ and listeners’ right to freedom of expression.”

“How they preserve due impartiality is rightly an editorial matter for broadcasters, and there are a number of techniques they can use. There is no one-size-fits all approach.”

Ofcom demonstrated its approach to GB News by rejecting complaints over an interview the then Tory MP Lee Anderson conducted on his weekly show with then Home Secretary Suella Braverman last September.

Although both politicians share similar views, the programme “included an appropriately wide range of significant views on immigration and border control, which were given due weight”.

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