\n<\/p>\n
The UK\u2019s TV and radio regulator is allowing GB News and others to \u201cflout\u201d accuracy rules and broadcast climate change denial, say campaigners. Instances cited include describing global heating as \u201cthe climate scam\u201d and suggesting the government was going to introduce \u201cenforced veganism\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ofcom has received 1,221 complaints related to the climate crisis since January 2020, when its searchable database began. None resulted in a ruling that the broadcasting code had been breached. In fact, only two such breaches have been found since 2007.<\/p>\n
More than 50 of the complaints were made by the campaign group Reliable Media about GB News programmes since March 2024. The group said the segments included false statements about climate breakdown that had either gone unchallenged or had failed to be balanced. Ofcom assessed but did not pursue any of the complaints. The campaigners accused Ofcom of \u201ceffectively suspending its accuracy rules on this life-and-death issue\u201d.<\/p>\n
In contrast, the French regulator Arcom has found four broadcasting code breaches related to the climate crisis in the last two years. In one, the rightwing channel CNews was fined \u20ac20,000 (\u00a317,000) for a segment in which a speaker said climate change was \u201ca lie, a scam\u201d.<\/p>\n
GB News said the campaigners were politically motivated and wanted to shut down public debate.<\/p>\n
The Guardian reviewed a sample of 18 of the complaints made by Reliable Media. They included the GB News host Ben Leo describing global heating as \u201cthe climate scam\u201d in April 2025 and a guest on a September 2024 show hosted by the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, criticising those \u201cwho say \u2018Oh global warming, global warming, global warming\u2019 as though this were a problem. You just go outside tonight, you\u2019ll see it isn\u2019t really\u201d. In November 2024, the GB News host Leo Kearse misleadingly suggested that the UK government was going to introduce \u201cenforced veganism\u201d.<\/p>\n
A regular contributor to the Headliners show, Lewis Schaffer, claimed in July 2024 that \u201cclimate change is rubbish\u201d and that \u201cclimate is the full-on war\u201d as opposed to a \u201cculture war\u201d. A few weeks earlier Schaffer claimed \u201cthe truth is climate change is not a real thing\u201d and that \u201cwe\u2019ve been lied to\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Lewis Schaffer claimed in July 2024 that \u2018climate change is rubbish\u2019 and that \u2018climate is the full-on war\u2019 as opposed to a \u2018culture war\u2019.<\/span> Photograph: GB News<\/p>\n Another guest said in June 2024 that \u201csince 1979 we\u2019ve been checking the change and comparing it with the forecast of the UN models \u2026 and it just doesn\u2019t happen as advertised\u201d. In fact, UN climate models have been remarkably accurate.<\/p>\n The burning of fossil fuels has \u201cunequivocally caused global warming\u201d, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC is a collaboration of thousands of leading scientists and its conclusions are signed off by its 195 member countries, including the UK. \u201cWidespread losses and damages to nature and people\u201d will continue to intensify, the IPCC said, and rapid cuts in carbon emissions to net zero are required: \u201cThere is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all.\u201d<\/p>\n Ofcom\u2019s broadcasting code requires that factual programmes \u201cmust not materially mislead the audience\u201d and that \u201cnews, in whatever form, must be reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality\u201d. The code further requires that \u201calternative viewpoints must be adequately represented\u201d when programme presenters express their own views on matters of political controversy or public policy. Guidance notes for the code add that: \u201cAn example of an issue which Ofcom considered to be broadly settled is the scientific principles behind the theory of anthropogenic global warming.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cObviously we\u2019re all free as individuals to hold whatever opinions we like,\u201d said Richard Wilson, the director of Reliable Media. \u201cBut running a TV or radio station [means] you\u2019re promising to uphold some pretty basic standards around truth and accuracy. The problem is that Ofcom is now allowing some TV and radio stations to flout the rules and on an issue like climate change the stakes could not be higher.\u201d<\/p>\n Ofcom was \u201chiding behind a simplistic and distorted definition of freedom of expression\u201d, he said, adding that Arcom\u2019s approach in France showed it was possible for regulators to take robust action on climate misinformation.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The planet’s most important stories. Get all the week’s environment news – the good, the bad and the essential<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Ofcom said: \u201cWe enforce our rules fairly and proportionately, acting independently and impartially at all times. In line with the right to freedom of expression, our rules allow for robust debate about topical issues, and broadcasters are free to include controversial opinions in their programmes, providing they comply with the code.\u201d<\/p>\n In a response to a freedom of information request, Ofcom said \u201cthere have been no recent investigations\u201d relating to climate change. It said the only investigations it held on record were from 2017 and 2007, in which BBC Radio 4 and Channel 4 respectively were judged to have breached the broadcasting code.<\/p>\n A GB News spokesperson said: \u201cLike all these politically motivated activist groups the only thing that is \u2018reliable\u2019 is their desire to shut down public debate \u2013 even when a broadcaster is fully compliant with the rules. Unfortunately for them they are losing. GB News is fearless in its coverage of all perspectives including those which might challenge so-called consensus.\u201d<\/p>\n Arcom has declared four breaches of its broadcasting code related to climate change since 2023. As well as fining CNews for the 2023 television segment in which a speaker said climate change was \u201ca lie, a scam\u201d and \u201ca form of totalitarianism\u201d, Sud Radio received warnings after programmes in which \u201cseveral statements contradicted or minimised the existing scientific consensus on current climate change, in treatment lacking rigour and without contradiction\u201d, which constituted \u201ca failure by the company to fulfil its obligation of honesty\u201d.<\/p>\n Arcom\u2019s deputy director, Pauline Combredet-Blassel, said in April: \u201cSince there is a scientific consensus on climate change, we verify whether it is referenced in the disputed segment, and we only intervene if it is not.\u201d<\/p>\n Eva Morel, at QuotaClimat, the French campaign group that filed the climate complaints to Arcom, said: \u201cIt is perfectly OK to have different opinions on climate change. What becomes problematic is when a society can no longer agree on facts, because facts are the foundation of trust, which in turn underpins law, and ultimately, democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cWhen the media blur the line between facts and opinions, it doesn\u2019t lead people to trust in alternative truths; it leads them to trust in nothing at all. Sowing doubt about climate science serves to obstruct climate action and it endangers lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The UK\u2019s TV and radio regulator is allowing GB News and others to \u201cflout\u201d accuracy rules and broadcast climate change denial, say campaigners. Instances cited include describing global heating as \u201cthe climate scam\u201d and suggesting the government was going to introduce \u201cenforced veganism\u201d. Ofcom has received 1,221 complaints related to the climate crisis since January<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[11528,1185,186,187,5729,17874,1915,150,14052,666,17873],"class_list":{"0":"post-30496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-accuracy","9":"tag-campaigners","10":"tag-climate","11":"tag-crisis","12":"tag-enforced","13":"tag-flout","14":"tag-lets","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-ofcom","17":"tag-rules","18":"tag-veganism"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}