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TELL OFCOM: GB News is not being impartial with Net Zero

Watch: GB News regular guest makes unfounded and unbalanced claims about Net Zero, including labelling it a “cult”.

Read our complaint against GB News

On 24 August 2024, GB News regular contributor Dr Renee Hoenderkamp made sweeping claims about Net Zero, including labelling it a “cult” and a “monster”, without any opposition.

This segment violated Ofcom rules 5.5 and 5.7 which require impartiality generally and in relation to government policy specifically.

Submit your complaint to Ofcom using this form and by following the guidance below. 

Programme details:

Programme title: The Saturday Five
Date of broadcast: 24 August 2024
Time of broadcast (24 hour clock): 18:27
Channel / station: GB News

Your complaint:

Subject: A GB News guest called the Government’s energy policies a “crazy rush to Net Zero” and claimed that “this Net Zero monster is a cult” which “Labour are completely embedded in”. These claims were not challenged and are a violation of Ofcom impartiality rules.

Description:

Here’s a few bullet points to include:

  •  On 24 August, GB News guest Dr Renee Hoenderkamp said, in response to news that energy bills are due to increase, that this was caused by “this crazy rush to Net Zero at breakneck speed”. She then falsely claimed that Net Zero policies have “completely de-industrialised Germany”, and that “this Net Zero monster is a cult and Labour are completely embedded in it and they don’t care about us”. None of this was directly challenged in the segment, with the host Darren Grimes even expressing support for the claims, saying that Energy Secretary Ed Miliband “will make Britain moribund”.
  • This segment lacked any meaningful balance and served to discredit green energy policies without any opposition. These claims, including from a GB News host, violated Ofcom rules 5.5 and 5.7, which require that segments have “due impartiality”, including specifically on “matters relating to current public policy”, and that “views must also be presented with due weight”.
Deadline for complaints: September 20, 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
Read our guide

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.