GB News Broke Impartiality Rules During Martin Daubney Programme, Says Ofcom

Ex-Brexit Party MEP Martin Daubney in an undated file photo. Joe Giddens/PA

GB News has been found to have breached Ofcom’s rules on impartiality again, this time during a programme presented by former Brexit Party MEP Martin Daubney.

It is the fourth time GB News has breached the impartiality rules since its launch two years ago.

Mr. Daubney was standing in for Laurence Fox—who has since been sacked by GB News—and gave his own opinions on immigration and asylum policy during a segment on small boats crossing the English Channel.

Mr. Daubney—the deputy leader of the Reclaim Party which has one MP, Andrew Bridgen—also interviewed the leader of the Reform Party, Richard Tice, during the programme on June 16, 2023.

Ofcom said on Monday that programmes discussing “matters of major political controversy and current public policy” had “heightened impartiality requirements,” which the episode did not satisfy.

‘Insufficient Challenge’

It said there was an “insufficient challenge” to Mr. Tice’s views and said the “limited alternative views presented in the programme were dismissed.”

Ofcom said, “The programme therefore did not include and give due weight to an appropriately wide range of significant views, as required by the code.”

The media regulator said GB News had “accepted that the content was not compliant with the heightened special impartiality requirements.”

Ofcom warned, “We expect GB News to take careful account of this decision in its compliance of future programming.”

The UK media watchdog Ofcom's logo in an undated file photo. Yui Mok/PA

GB News subsequently put out a statement in which it said: “We accept Ofcom’s finding and agree that our programme did not meet the due impartiality guidelines that our production team had planned.”

“Our intent was for Mr. Daubney to provide challenging questioning to Mr. Tice. Mr. Daubney talked of the need for balance and raised the views of people who might object to the strong measures Mr. Tice was proposing,” it added.

But it concluded: “However, we accept this did not go far enough to meet Ofcom’s guidelines or our own policies and editorial charter. We apologise for this breach of the code.”

Mr. Daubney, the son of a Nottinghamshire miner, is a former journalist who worked for The Sun and Loaded but in May 2019 he was elected, at Britain’s last ever European election, as the Brexit Party MEP for the East Midlands, a post he held until Britain left the EU in January 2020.

Last year Mr. Daubney told The Epoch Times Muslims had “no right to be offended” after a cinema chain dropped plans to show a controversial film, “The Lady of Heaven.”

12 Other Ofcom Investigations Into GB News

Ofcom said it has “12 further investigations open into GB News, which we are working to conclude as quickly as possible.”

Last month the channel was reprimanded by Ofcom for breaching impartiality rules when two Conservative MPs—who are married and jointly host a programme—interviewed the chancellor of the exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, earlier this year.

In its ruling Ofcom said the episode of “Saturday Morning with Esther and Phil” on March 11, 2023—four days before Mr. Hunt presented his Spring Budget—was a breach of impartiality rules.

Ofcom received 45 complaints about the interview, which was focused on the government’s fiscal policy ahead of the Spring Budget.

In August it emerged GB News was facing a number of investigations by Ofcom, including one in relation to an episode of Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg’s show “State Of The Nation.”

When GB News was launched it was described in a Guardian column as being “anti-impartiality news” but its CEO Angelos Frangopoulos, a former chief executive at Sky News Australia, described it as “adding plurality to UK media,” and said it aimed “to serve British communities who feel poorly represented by mainstream television media, especially outside London.”

PA Media contributed to this report.