Ofcom investigates GB News over guest’s pride and paedophilia remarks
GB News is being investigated by the UK’s media regulator after a guest appeared to link pride parades with bestiality and paedophilia.
The remarks are thought to have set a new record for individual complaints about a GB News programme, with more than 12,000 people raising concerns about comments made by the guest Caroline Farrow.
Those to speak out included the Green party leader, Zack Polanski, and Bimini, the star of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.
Farrow, who describes herself as a Catholic commentator and is a campaigns manager for the ultra-conservative advocacy group CitizenGO, made the remarks during a discussion after the Pride in London march in July.
Speaking on the Alex Armstrong Tonight show, Farrow said the march was “not about gay rights” and had instead “become about celebrating every single sexuality that isn’t heterosexuality”.
She said this included “some very bizarre and unhealthy kinks and quirks, you know, like furries and bestiality and even minor-attracted, they call themselves minor-attracted people, you know, paedophiles”.
The remarks prompted an open letter signed by Polanski and Bimini calling on Ofcom to deal with the “dangerous” disinformation.
Ofcom confirmed to the Guardian that it was investigating the show over potential breaches of broadcasting standards. The rules dictate that “material which may cause offence is justified by the context”.
The edition of the show containing the remarks has since been removed from YouTube.
Armstrong, the show’s presenter, challenged the comments at the time, saying “the overwhelming amount of people at pride were there for good reasons”.
He added: “I don’t think it was full of paedophiles and everything, I’m sure there are nefarious people.”
He went further on a later show, saying: “Comments made by guests last weekend conflated gay pride with the celebration of paedophilia. This is an age-old gay trope that’s been used over a number of years to demonise and slander gay people. Those comments by guests had no place in that discussion.”
The Green party deputy leader welcomed Ofcom’s latest decision to investigate Farrow’s comments.
“Zack was right to complain about it at the time,” Rachel Millward said. “The suggestion that gay people are somehow a particular threat to children is baseless, irresponsible and deeply harmful.
“GB News is a regulated broadcaster, and broadcasters are supposed to meet basic professional standards. That should include not using their platform to spread hateful lies about a marginalised group.”
GB News has been approached for comment. At the time, it said: “These comments were expressed within a live debate by a contributor. They were her own views, and do not reflect the views or editorial position of GB News.
“Anyone watching the debate would have noted the comments were robustly and repeatedly challenged by two other contributors.”
GB News has previously been criticised by Ofcom for similar remarks on another programme. Last year, the regulator concluded that the channel breached the broadcasting code after a presenter, Josh Howie, said the “full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons” at a church would “include paedos”.
On that occasion, sanctions were not imposed on GB News because it had already broadcast an apology and a fuller discussion about the context of the comment within weeks of the original broadcast.
The investigation comes amid increased pressure on Ofcom to enforce broadcasting rules.
While the regulator is also investigating a GB News repeat of its interview with Donald Trump, it declined to investigate a claim by a GB News presenter that there had been no riot in Belfast in June, despite cars and houses being set alight, attacks on police and families fleeing their homes.
The previous Ofcom chair, the Conservative peer Michael Grade, who left the post in April, accused GB News’s critics of seeking to restrict free speech to a “liberal, Islington consensus”.
Reporting from The Guardian contributed to this story.
