LONDON — Michael Grade, after stepping down as chair of Ofcom, publicly defended GB News’s editorial approach and criticized the BBC’s coverage of issues like immigration and Brexit, prompting rebuttals from former Ofcom officials and media scholars. Grade told Politics Home: “I can now speak [freely], as I’m not at Ofcom.”
Grade argued that GB News fills a gap left by mainstream broadcasters, saying: “I honestly think they’re embarrassed by the fact that there is a news organisation that has a different news agenda to them, that speaks to the agenda of the majority – if you look at the polls, a large swathe of the voting population, who have no voice on the BBC.” He added: “Immigration, Brexit, these are all issues that don’t get the weight on the BBC, or haven’t been able to, that GB News will give, so what’s the problem?” Grade maintained that all broadcasters operate under the same regulatory framework, stating: “The same rules apply to GB News as apply to the BBC, Sky, ITN, whoever.” He emphasized that editorial choices are inherent to news production, explaining: “All news programmes are the result of editorial choices made all along the line. What story are we going to cover? How are we going to cover it? Who do we interview? What are we going to ask them? What are we going to use? Where does it go in the running order?” He concluded: “Because GB News make different editorial choices necessarily on each news day from the BBC, ITN or Sky, doesn’t make it wrong.”
Chris Banatvala, Ofcom’s founding director of standards, disputed Grade’s interpretation of due impartiality, saying: “After reading hundreds of pages of Ofcom impartiality decisions, perhaps the clearest explanation for the regulator’s failures is Lord Grade’s suggestion that due impartiality can be achieved with little more than ‘a sentence in a script.’” Banatvala added: “Grade is also wrong about the criticism of Ofcom. No one seriously argues that GB News’s editorial agenda is itself the problem. Decisions about which stories to cover have always been a matter for broadcasters, not the regulator.” He further claimed: “The evidence is now clear: Ofcom is not applying the same regulatory standards to GB News as other news services.”
Steven Barnett, professor of communications at the University of Westminster, said: “Michael Grade appears to have rewritten the law on impartiality.” He added: “It is up to parliament to decide whether it wishes to change the law, but in the meantime let’s hope that Ofcom under its new chairman [Ian Cheshire] is prepared to regulate GB News as parliament required.”