OFCOM has ruled that an episode of the Mark Steyn show on GB News has breached its broadcasting code with Covid claims for the second time.
The media watchdog said an episode on October 4 2022 saw an interview between the Canadian author and presenter and guest Dr Naomi Wolf, who made “serious claims” about the Covid-19 vaccine, including that its rollout amounted to a pre-meditated crime using the term “mass murder” and was comparable with the actions of “doctors in pre-Nazi Germany”.
Ofcom said it received 422 complaints that alleged these comments were “dangerous” and included “misinformation” that went “unopposed”.
On Tuesday the UK regulator said it was particularly concerned by Wolf’s “significant and alarming claim” that mass murder was taking place through the rollout of the vaccinations, which she repeated three times.
🧵We have found GB News in breach of our broadcasting rules. This follows an investigation relating to comments about Covid-19 vaccines, made by Naomi Wolf during an episode of the Mark Steyn programme on 4 October 2022. Read more: https://t.co/TpEK4ty7O5 pic.twitter.com/j9nHqzhe6e
— Ofcom (@Ofcom) May 9, 2023
Ofcom said GB News “fell short” of the requirement to protect audiences from potentially harmful content by “allowing Naomi Wolf to promote a serious conspiracy theory without challenge or context”.
It also said Wolf was presented as a “figure of authority”, which “would have lent credibility to her unchallenged claims”, and GB News did not take “adequate steps” to protect viewers from the potentially harmful content.
It is the second “significant breach” of the code recorded against GB News and therefore it is requesting the broadcaster attends a meeting “to discuss its approach to compliance”, Ofcom said on Tuesday.
It comes two months after the watchdog ruled an episode of the Mark Steyn show which aired on April 21 2022 broke its broadcasting rules and was “potentially harmful and materially misleading” with an “incorrect claim” that UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data provided evidence of a “definitive causal link” between a third Covid-19 vaccine and higher rates of infection, death and people being admitted to hospital.
A statement from GB News read: “We accept Ofcom’s finding that our former presenter Mark Steyn and his guest Naomi Wolf breached the Ofcom code in their broadcast about Covid vaccines last October. Mr Steyn last appeared on the channel five months ago.
"GB News chose to be an Ofcom-regulated channel and we are proud to play our part in bringing a wider range of opinion to Britain’s media landscape.
"We take Ofcom compliance seriously and we also take freedom of speech seriously. The balance between these two is not always clear cut and presents vital issues for our democracy.
"The Communications Act of 2003 and the Ofcom Code which stemmed from it were not framed with channels like ours in mind, nor did they fully envisage the current mix of news and opinion in broadcast, or indeed the online and social media world.
"We welcome the opportunity to meet Ofcom and to work with them in ensuring that our legal freedoms to speak freely are robustly protected, while remaining aligned with some of the best journalism and broadcasting standards in the world.”
