GB News has won it’s judicial review of Ofcom’s decision that two Rees-Mogg shows breached the broadcasting Code. The TV Regulator showed it’s left wing bias when the High Court found that its rules generally prohibit politicians from presenting news in any form and that any news presented by a politician inherently lacks due impartiality were unlawful !!!

Embarrassingly for Ofcom, this is the first time the watchdog has lost a judicial review in relation to the Broadcasting Code. Ofcom claimed that GBNews’ ‘Jacob Rees-Moggs State of the Nation’ breached impartiality rules (5.1 & 5.3) of the Broadcasting Code. Ofcom attempted to justify the decisions on the basis that its rules generally prohibit politicians from presenting news in any form and therefore it took the view that any news presented by a politician inherently lacks due impartiality, regardless of content, but the High Court overturned the OfCOM decision.

This was a high profile and legally significant case, as the rules surrounding the use of politicians as presenters have been subject to considerable debate and scrutiny, both in the media and in Parliament. The Court said Ofcom’s interpretation was inconsistent with the actual wording of the rules as well as not foreseeable for broadcasters. The rules actually only prevent politicians from generally presenting “news programmes” and not things like current affairs programmes. It also found that whether news is presented with due impartiality requires a fully contextual approach (i.e. it needs analysis about whether it is biased, and that Ofcom cannot simply find lack of due impartiality just because it is presented by a politician).

Ofcom tried to fine GB News £100,000 for this.

It is notoriously difficult to overturn regulatory decisions by Judicial Review and therefore the degree of bias in the Ofcom decision must, in my opinion, have been significant.
^{Nick Lockett}

Jacob ReesMogg’s State of the Nation programme typically features comment and debate about topical issues, including monologues (Moggologues), interviews and panel discussions with guests from the worlds of politics and journalism and includes a scheduled news bulletin, presented by a news anchor,
lasting approximately three minutes.

So determined were Ofcom to find against GBNews that they found a breach of Rule 5.3 (politicians presenting news) even though Rees-Mogg had clearly read, or presented breaking news, in a programme that was a current affairs
programme, not a “. Rule 5.3 does not apply outside “news programme”. This shows that Ofcom wasn’t even capable of understanding its own, rather obvious rules.

As for the breach of 5.1 arising from presentation of breaking news content by a politician without exceptional editorial justification, the court found ” “an inherent lack of due impartiality”…..funny that they picked a right of centre channel for the attack, isn’t it.

Fully judgment here