They really don’t like being held accountable
GB News has complained about being the ‘victim’ of a ‘coordinated attack’ by ‘far-left groups’ after presenter Josh Howie’s homophobic remarks sparked complaints to Ofcom.
The chief executive of loss-making GB News, Angelos Frangopoulos, told The Telegraph that the channel had been “subjected to a coordinated political campaign by far-Left pressure groups”.
He claimed also that Stop Funding Hate’s efforts to draw advertisers’ attention to GB News’ hateful content, was “threatening free speech” and accused the group of “directly lobbying” Ofcom.
On 22 January, Howie used a slur that linked the LGBTQ+ community to paedophiles.
In response, the broadcasting regulator Ofcom received over 1,200 complaints and has launched an investigation into the channel this week.
The Good Law Project launched an online tool to help the public submit complaints to Ofcom, which it says has led to a record 71,582 complaints being made.
In a broadcast on 24 January, host Michelle Dewberry made a comment that some trans people are “deviants”, which Ofcom has said it won’t investigate.
Stop Funding Hate has repeatedly urged companies to pull their adverts from GB News due to its harmful content.
In January, the campaign group launched a successful crowdfunder to help build the fightback against the channel, which has raised nearly £25,000 to date.
Stop Funding Hate posted a link to The Telegraph article on X earlier this week: “GB News is blaming its problems on “far left campaigners” again.”
“They also seem to want to expand the definition of ‘threatening free speech’ to (checks notes) making complaints to Ofcom and encouraging others to do the same.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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