GB News faces investigation over Donald Trump interview

GB News is facing an investigation over claims it broke broadcasting rules by failing to challenge Donald Trump when he called climate change “a hoax”.Ofcom said it had launched an investigation into a re-run of a GB News interview with Mr Trump for the midday broadcast of The Weekend.The regulator previously declined to launch an investigation into the original airing of the same interview 12 hours earlier, on GB News’ The Late Show Live, stating the programme had featured “alternative perspectives” as part of a panel discussion.The new investigation concerns a second screening of the sit-down interview on Nov 15. Ofcom is expected to examine the surrounding content shown alongside the interview.An Ofcom spokesman said: “This programme featured an interview by GB News presenter, Bev Turner, with US President Donald Trump. We are investigating whether it breached our rules on due impartiality and material misleadingness.“The subject of today’s investigation is a different programme which aired at a different time to the one which we decided did not warrant further investigation earlier this year. Each case is considered on its own merits, taking into account the particular content and contextual factors in each programme.”During the interview, Mr Trump made a number of false claims, including that climate change is a “hoax”, that London had no-go areas for police and that parts of the UK capital were under “Sharia law”.A GB News spokesman accused Ofcom of a “U-turn”.They said: “GB News is surprised and concerned by Ofcom’s delayed decision to investigate in circumstances where it had already published an ‘assessed, not pursued’ finding in relation to the original broadcast of the interview and issued a public statement explaining why the original programme complied with the Broadcasting Code.“Ofcom’s U-turn over the repeat of the interview with US president, Donald Trump, follows adverse commentary around its original decision by prominent critics of both Ofcom and GB News.”The spokesman added: “The sequence of events inevitably raises questions around the rationale for reopening the matter at this stage. It also raises serious concerns around regulatory certainty, procedural fairness and the consistency of Ofcom’s processes.“GB News stands firmly by its journalism and editorial standards.”Repeated clashesGB News has repeatedly clashed with Ofcom over its programming, with the regulator fining the channel £100,000 for a broadcast featuring Rishi Sunak, then prime minister, in February 2024.Ofcom had said at the time that the channel gave Mr Sunak an “uncontested platform to promote the policies and performance of his Government in a period preceding the UK General Election”. GB News is partly owned by Sir Paul Marshall, a hedge fund manager.Bob Ward, of the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said the GB News interview with Mr Trump had included an “astonishing number of false claims”.Mr Ward, who filed a complaint with Ofcom about the broadcast, said in November: “Despite the numerous untruths, Ms Turner made no attempt to correct the president.“It is perhaps no surprise that Mr Trump, given his track record, found it so difficult to tell the truth about energy and climate change. However, it is disappointing that Ms Turner and GB News made no attempt to correct him and indeed added to the inaccuracies.”