GB News in 'significant breach' of Ofcom rules over Covid vaccine claims

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A GB News interview with a Covid vaccine skeptic - in which the vaccine was compared to a 'mass murder' - broke broadcast rules, found the 'Ofcom.

The media watchdog said the episode of The Mark Steyn Show on the Right Channel, which aired in October 2022, was a "significant breach" of its code.

< p>The show featured an interview with Canadian author Dr. Naomi Wolf, who claimed that the deployment of the vaccine was a premeditated crime amounting to "mass murder ", and was comparable to the actions of "doctors in pre-Nazi Germany".

Ofcom said the channel allowed the author to "promote a serious conspiracy theory without challenge or context and offered "no review" of the evidence she said she had to support her claims.

"We found that Naomi Wolf's comments had the potential to impact the viewers' decisions about their health and were therefore potentially dangerous,” the regulator said.

The media organization said it received 422 complaints alleging the comments. were 'dangerous' and included 'misinformation' which went 'unopposed'.

Ofcom said this was the second major breach of the code on record against GB News and, as a result, it asks the broadcaster to attend a meeting with media regulator "to discuss its approach to compliance".

Since March 2020, Ofcom has received over 26,000 complaints about TV coverage and radio linked to the Covid pandemic - finding nine programs in breach of the rules.

An earlier episode of the Mark Steyn program was found to have breached the rules by presenting a "materially misleading interpretation" of the official Covid vaccine data "without sufficient dispute or context".

Mr. Steyn left GB News in February. The channel is said to have tried to hold him personally responsible for the fines imposed by Ofcom for the previous breach of broadcasting rules.

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