The prime minister’s announcement of a snap summer election in the UK caught many people by surprise. But broadcasters and the media regulator have been preparing for some time. Ofcom faces the challenge of monitoring how broadcasters report the campaigns, and whether they are abiding by the UK’s due impartiality laws in doing so.
The broadcast news landscape has changed somewhat since the last general election. This is the first time the highly opinionated GB News will be covering the campaign. Its partisan approach includes prominently right-wing journalists and politicians as presenters. Still, the channel has maintained an Ofcom broadcast licence since its launch in 2021.
Radio stations such as LBC News have been airing opinionated political programming over the last decade or so. But the arrival of new television news channels (namely GB News, and Talk TV until it became online only in May 2024) have pushed the boundaries of Ofcom’s rules on impartiality.
