Five impartiality investigations into GB News over its Don’t Kill Cash Campaign have been discontinued by Ofcom.
Ofcom revealed this morning that it is no longer probing two episodes of Britain’s Newsroom, one of The Live Desk, one of Patrick Christys and one of Breakfast with Eamonn and Isabel, the morning show hosted by the former ITV star presenter.
The regulator had been examining various potential breaches of its code around promotion of GB News’ campaign to stop Britain from moving away from being a cashless society.
The episodes took place between July and August 2023. Explaining Ofcom’s thinking, a spokeswoman said The Live Desk had previously been rapped for breaking due impartiality rules over Don’t Kill Cash.
“Our published decision makes the regulatory position on this campaign sufficiently clear,” she added. “Therefore, for reasons of proportionality, we are discontinuing these five additional related investigations. Our investigation did not seek to question the merits of the campaign itself.”
Ofcom has opened more than a dozen GB News probes since the channel launched including some high-profile incidences. The regulator recently placed the channel “on notice” after five code breaches over the thorny issues of politicians acting as news presenters. Any more breaches following this misdemeanour could result in sanctions including a fine.
GB News was also rapped in March over Laurence Fox’s highly misogynistic rant about a female journalist, which led to him being fired from the station and presenter Dan Wootton leaving. A separate investigation into ex-presenter Wootton’s Dan Wootton Tonight show was also recently discontinued.
Other high-profile breaches have included People’s Forum: The Prime Minister, an on-air grilling of former PM Rishi Sunak that was heavily criticized for failing to properly challenge the man in the hotseat.
