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The UK media watchdog has started an investigation into whether former Conservative cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg breached broadcast standards in his coverage of breaking news about Donald Trump.
Ofcom said on Monday that it would look at Rees-Mogg’s reporting of a news story on the channel GB News about a civil trial verdict by a Manhattan jury involving the former US president.
The regulator has strict rules that prevent politicians from acting as newsreaders in news programmes in the UK, although this position is being tested more strongly as broadcasters increasingly hire politicians as presenters.
John Nicolson, a Scottish National party MP and member of the House of Commons media committee, warned Ofcom chief Dame Melanie Dawes in March of “a creeping politicisation and ‘Americanisation’ of news”. He cited ex-culture secretary Nadine Dorries interviewing former prime minister Boris Johnson on TalkTV, which is owned by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.
Politicians can host topical current affairs programmes, including interviews with other politicians, but need to show due impartiality by, for example, representing a range of views. Ofcom said it had received 40 complaints about Rees-Mogg’s coverage of the outcome of Trump’s civil trial.
The decision to investigate the May broadcast by Rees-Mogg comes weeks after the media watchdog started a wider study into whether current rules on politicians hosting TV shows were fit and appropriate in view of shifts in audience expectations.
The rules that govern how politicians can present programmes were first introduced in 2005 but Ofcom said new research was warranted, “given the rise in the number of current affairs programmes presented by sitting politicians”. It will publish its findings later this year and rule changes could follow.
Rees-Mogg presents the hour-long programme between Monday and Thursday on GB News. The right-leaning broadcaster, backed by hedge fund billionaire Paul Marshall, also employs other politicians such as ex-Brexit party leader Nigel Farage, who are among its most watched presenters.
Angelos Frangopoulos, GB news chief executive, said in May that the channel would bring in new political stars to present its programmes, including more from the left-of-centre of UK politics.
Ofcom has previously found GB News in breach of broadcasting rules, most recently in May when it censured the network for airing a programme in which US author Naomi Wolf compared the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine to “mass murder”.
At the time, the watchdog said it had called in GB News “to discuss its approach to compliance”.
A separate investigation into another programme hosted by Tory MPs Esther McVey and Philip Davies, broadcast on March 11, is ongoing, Ofcom said. GB News did not respond to requests for comment.
Ofcom also said on Monday that it was probing whether British businessman and politician Richard Tice broke rules requiring news and current affairs to be presented with due impartiality in relation to a discussion about the SNP on Talk TV.
The watchdog said it had received two complaints over a segment of a programme hosted by Alex Salmond, former SNP leader and now head of the Alba party, which debated whether the SNP was “hold[ing] back the course of [Scottish] independence”.
Separately, ministers launched a review into the regulation of and legislation around the pornography industry, following calls to curb exploitative, abusive and illegal content online.
Government officials said the review would “investigate any gaps in UK regulations which allow exploitation and abuse to take place online as well as identifying barriers to enforcing criminal law”.
At present, the industry falls under different regimes that address the publication and distribution of commercial pornographic material offline, such as videos, and online.