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TELL OFCOM: Don’t let GB News misrepresent you

Watch: GB News presenter labels GB News as ‘under attack’ and calls Ofcom’s latest decision ‘quite sinister’.

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On 20 May 2024, Jacob Rees-Mogg responded to Ofcom’s decision relating to the ‘Peoples Forum’ with Rishi Sunak, calling the news piece ‘GB News under attack’ and labelling the Ofcom decision as ‘quite sinister’. 

This programme failed to provide reasonable care for the way that material facts were presented and disregarded in a manner that breaches Ofcom’s rules. Submit your complaint to Ofcom using this form and by following the guidance below.

Programme details:

Programme title: Jacob Rees-Mogg’s State Of The Nation
Date of broadcast: 20 May 2024
Time of broadcast: 20:00
Channel / station: GB News

Your complaint:

Subject: GB News’s State Of The Nation breached Ofcom rules 5.1, 5.7 & 7.9 by misrepresenting and disregarding key elements of Ofcom’s ‘People’s Forum’ decision, as well as alleging wrongdoing and incompetence in a way that is unfair to the media regulator.

Description:

Here’s a few bullet points to include:

  • On 20 May 2024, Jacob Rees-Mogg responded to Ofcom’s decision on the ‘People’s Forum’ with PM Sunak, via a segment called ‘GB News under attack’ where he labelled the decision ‘quite sinister’.
  • In a misrepresentation of the decision, Rees-Mogg told viewers that GB News was found in breach for ‘allowing the British people to ask questions of the Prime Minister’. He stated that ‘Ofcom seemingly only wants apparatchiks to ask the questions’ and applies rules ‘erratically, unfairly and actually it just wanted a more left-wing program’
  • Ofcom rule 5.1 states that ‘news must be reported with due accuracy and…impartiality’. Rule 5.7 says that ‘views and facts must not be misrepresented’. GB News broke these rules by misrepresenting the facts about Ofcom’s decision, including the claim that ‘the broadcast regulator has found GB News to be in breach of the broadcasting code for the crime of allowing the British people to ask questions of the Prime Minister’. This was an inaccurate representation of the basis on which GB News was found to be in breach.
  • Ofcom rule 7.9 states that ‘broadcasters should take reasonable care to satisfy themselves that material facts have not been presented, disregarded or omitted in a way that is unfair to an…organization’. GB News broke rule 7.9 in alleging wrongdoing and incompetence without reasonable care for the way that material facts were disregarded in a manner that is unfair to Ofcom. 
Deadline for complaints: June 17, 2024 11:59 pm

Submitting a complaint to Ofcom should take you less than 10 minutes and is completed via a form on their website.

Go straight to OFCOM
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Submitting a complaint to Ofcom should take you less than 10 minutes and is completed via a form on their website.

  • Ofcom is the UK’s public regulator for communications services. Among other responsibilities, their job is to ensure that TV channels uphold the Broadcasting Code. This code requires broadcasters to protect the public from harmful and offensive material, avoid unjust or unfair treatment of individuals and organisations, and report the news with due accuracy and impartiality.
  • Ofcom has real power to yield. Sanctions they can issue include directions not to repeat content, fines — and crucially, the power to suspend or revoke a TV channel’s licence to broadcast.
  • Ofcom must carefully consider every single complaint to see if their rules have been broken. If the complaint is strong, Ofcom will launch a formal investigation process.
  • Ofcom will not reply to each specific complaint but instead publishes records of the complaints received, investigations underway and breaches on their website, every fortnight.
  • Complaints must be about a specific breach of the code and submitted within 20 days of the program going to air.