UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom has concluded that GB News breached the broadcasting code when a presenter made a homophobic slur on air earlier this year.
On 22 January, one of the presenters on the “news discussion” show Headliners, Josh Howie, suggested that a US bishop’s plea to Donald Trump “to have mercy” on gay, lesbian and transgender children who fear for their lives “included paedos.”
The statement would ultimately attract a record 71,582 complaints, 63,000 of which had already been made when Prolific North first covered the story in February, in part driven by high-profile campaigning from Good Law Project.
The regulator launched an investigation in March following the complaints. Now, seven months later, Ofcom has found GB News, whose commercial operations are based in Manchester, to be in breach of the Broadcasting Code, specifically Rule 2.3 of the code, part of the section on harm and offence.
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The comment “clearly had the potential to be highly offensive,” the regulator concluded, by “appearing to conflate or associate some sexualities and/or gender identities with paedophilia, particularly given how well established this is as a prejudicial trope against homosexual people”.
GB News took Headliners off the air in June, although the broadcaster cited low ratings as being behind its decision rather than any connection to the avalanche of complaints over Howie’s comment.
Howie later appeared on another GB News show to apologise and explain why he had made his comments, two and a half weeks after the original broadcast, which Ofcom has now said it considers “adequate” and that “the matter is resolved.” No further action will be taken against the broadcaster.
Good Law Project’s defamation lawyer, Matthew Gill, noted that GB News had defended its “disgraceful claim about the LGBTQ+ community as ‘free speech’ until the bitter end”.
“It’s good that Ofcom has finally decided that this dangerous slur should never have been put on air,” Gill added. “But we need the regulator to hold GB News and its hate-filled broadcasts to account. Toxic programming must face real consequences. Ofcom must impose sanctions.”
