GB News being punished to appease Left-wing activists, says co-owner

Telegraph

20-05-2025

Ofcom is unfairly punishing GB News under pressure from Left-wing activists, the broadcaster's co-owner has said.
Sir Paul Marshall accused the regulator of unfairly targeting the start-up broadcaster with a string of investigations as it struggles to fend off an 'onslaught' of complaints from pressure groups such as Stop Funding Hate.
In a speech at Oxford University on Tuesday evening, the media tycoon was expected to say: 'Understandably, Ofcom find it difficult, just like other corporate and institutional boards, to resist the pressures from Left-wing campaigning groups and this has led them to initiate many more enquiries into GB News than could be justified.'
Ofcom has found GB News in breach of broadcasting rules a dozen times since its launch in 2021, taking issue with alleged misinformation and its use of politicians as presenters.
Sir Paul, a hedge fund tycoon who co-owns GB News alongside Dubai-based investment firm Legatum, has argued that many of the investigations against the channel stem from complaints orchestrated by campaign groups.
Even before its launch, the broadcaster was targeted by an advertising boycott led by Stop Funding Hate, which resulted in brands including Ikea and Nivea pulling their campaigns.
The boycott continues to hit GB News's bottom line, although other brands such as Marks & Spencer have started to advertise on the channel.
'Constructive relationship' with Ofcom
Sir Paul said GB News intends to have 'as constructive a relationship as possible with' the broadcasting regulator.
But he added: 'They sit within a framework full of anomalies and they are steadily assailed by invective from Left-wing activists, so it is not easy for them to resist the biases of metropolitan opinion.'
Sir Paul has weighed in on the debate after Angelos Frangopoulos, chief executive of GB News, accused Ofcom of having a 'jailer' mentality that was harming Sir Keir Starmer's growth plan.
Writing in The Telegraph earlier this month, the TV boss said Ofcom's plans to crack down on the use of politicians as presenters would make it 'even harder for budding newcomers'.
Sir Paul, a self-styled 'accidental' media owner who also owns UnHerd and bought The Spectator magazine for £100m last year, urged Ofcom to instead focus its attention on the BBC.
He argued that the public service broadcaster is held to lower standards of impartiality as it is permitted to review complaints first before they are escalated to the regulator.
Sir Paul accused the BBC of 'egregious bias' in its Arabic service and said the broadcaster had 'failed spectacularly' in its coverage of the grooming gangs scandal.
He also branded bosses 'weak, weak, weak' over the Gary Lineker anti-Semitism scandal and called for the corporation to be broken up.
The BBC has said the Match of the Day presenter made a mistake after sharing a social media post about Zionism that included an illustration of a rat, but it has repeatedly denied allegations of bias in its reporting.
An Ofcom spokesman said: 'As an independent regulator, we enforce our rules fairly and proportionately. All regulated broadcasters must comply with Ofcom's rules.
'The 'BBC First' process for complaints about BBC content is set out in the BBC Charter and Agreement and was approved by Parliament.'
In his Pharos lecture, Sir Paul also took aim at tech giants.
He said Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg should be forced to publish their algorithms and said platforms such as X and Meta should face tougher regulation to ensure they are held accountable for material posted on their sites.