British TV station GB News can continue to use politicians as presenters, after the media regulator Ofcom concluded the British public does not want to ban the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg and Lee Anderson from hosting programmes on news channels.
Cristina Nicolotti Squires, the Ofcom executive responsible for broadcast regulation, said that while “many are instinctively uncomfortable” with politicians presenting current affairs programmes, there was “no clear consensus for an outright ban”.
Instead, the media regulator will now explicitly require that GB News ensures serving politicians do not adopt the style and mannerisms of an unbiased newsreader, interviewer, or reporter – such as reading out a list of headlines directly to the audience.
Ofcom also reiterated existing rules banning serving politicians from presenting programmes during an election – meaning GB News will have to fill large gaps in its schedule when Rishi Sunak finally goes to the country.
The media regulator has faced growing criticism over how it applies its rules to GB News and whether the channel is being treated more leniently than traditional broadcasters.
Last month GB News was found to have repeatedly breached impartiality rules by paying Conservative MPs hundreds of thousands of pounds to serve as news presenters and interview the prime minister, Sunak. But rather than impose sanctions on GB News, the regulator instead simply put the channel “on notice” and warned it against further breaches. GB News has broken broadcasting rules on 12 occasions in the last 18 months, with a further eight investigations in progress.
Read more via The Guardian
