Is Ofcom guilty of double standards over GB News fine?

GB News has dealt with a number of Ofcom complaints in its time, but now things have become a little more serious. The media regulator has today announced that it plans to impose a whopping £100,000 fine on Gbeebies for ‘breaking due impartiality rules’ after it aired a pre-election interview with outgoing Tory leader and former prime minister Rishi Sunak. Crikey.

The programme with which Ofcom took issue – titled People’s Forum: The Prime Minister – was, according to the media watchdog, ‘in breach of Rules 5.11 and 5.12 of the Broadcasting Code’ after Sunak was given ‘a mostly uncontested platform’ to big up the work of the government. The regulator explains that ‘given the seriousness and repeated nature of this breach’, a six-figure fine is necessary. It’s not quite the end of the matter for GB News yet, however, as the broadcaster will challenge the breach decision via judicial review – meaning that the sanction imposed by Ofcom will not be enforced until this process has concluded.