Ofcom Watch

Good Morning Britain
ITV, 8 March 2021, 06:00

Good Morning Britain (GMB) is a weekday morning news and discussion programme broadcast on ITV.

Most of the broadcast on 8 March 2021 was dedicated to discussing an interview between Oprah Winfrey and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex which had been broadcast overnight in the USA. The Interview was due to air in the UK that evening and clips of it had been made publicly available ahead of the full broadcast.

Ofcom received more than 50,000 complaints about the Programme; the majority of which said that comments about mental health and suicide made by one of the lead presenters, Piers Morgan, were both harmful to the audience and highly offensive and that discussions on issues relating to race and racism in the Programme were highly offensive to some viewers.

Ofcom Decision

Overall, Ofcom considered that there is a high public interest value in broadcasting open and frank discussions about race and racism, as long as they comply with the Code. As set out above, we also considered that the Interview between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Oprah Winfrey contained serious allegations and it was legitimate for this Programme to discuss and scrutinise those claims. While we acknowledged that Mr Morgan's questions about the nature of racism had the potential to be highly offensive to some viewers, the conversations about race and racism in this Programme provided open debate on the issues raised by the Interview. We also considered that the Programme allowed for an important discussion to be had on the nature and impact of racism. ITV had clearly anticipated that racial issues would be discussed at length as part of the coverage of the Interview and had taken steps to ensure context could be provided during the discussions. Despite strong opinions expressed during the Programme, in Ofcom's view any potential offence was justified by the context and the comments and discussions about race and racism were not in breach of of the Code.

Not in Breach of Rules 2.1 and 2.3 in relation to the discussion on mental health and suicide.
Not in Breach of Rule 2.3 in relation to the debate about race and racism.

Ofcom has censured the English and Indian language channel, Republic Bharat for breaching UK censorship rules by bad mouthing Pakistan.

TV censor Ofcom said it had received a complaint about a programme contained demeaning statements which amounted to abusive and derogatory treatment of Pakistani people.

The Debate with Arnab is a regular English-language current affairs debate and discussion programme presented by the journalist Arnab Goswami. The debate featured in this episode took place in the context of Pakistan's announcement that it was planning to hold parliamentary elections in GilgitBaltistan.

Ofcom noted:

This programme contained material which was abusive and derogatory towards Pakistani people, in particular, by ascribing negative characteristics to Pakistani people as a whole on the basis of their nationality. Ofcom therefore considered this programme clearly had the potential to cause significant offence.

Ofcom expressed concern that after the publication of the above decisions, the Licensee went on to broadcast two further programmes which we have found to be in breach of Rule 3.3 of the Code.

Republic Bharat ceased broadcasting in the UK in May.

Britain's state internet censor Ofcom has announced that Anna-Sophie Harling will be its principal internet censor dealing with censorship under the Government's upcoming Online Safety Bill.

Ofcom will be able to fine tech firms that fail to remove 'offending' content up to 10% of their global revenue.

Harling will be part of a team reporting into Mark Bunting, director of online policy.

Harling is currently managing director for Europe at NewsGuard, which audits online publishers for 'accuracy'. And one can guess on her political allegiance as NewsGuard famously labelled the Daily Mail website as 'failing to maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability'.

The UK TV censor Ofcom has revealed an increase in the number of complaints that it receives about UK TV programmes. It received 142,660 complaints between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021, a 410% rise on the previous 12 months' total of 34,545.

Piers Morgan's comments on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's Oprah Winfrey TV interview on Good Morning Britain in March drew a record 54,453 complaints. Morgan accounts for three more of the 10 most-complained about TV broadcasts.

Ofcom's 10 most-complained about single transmission programmes were:

• Good Morning Britain : 8 March 2021 -Comments by Piers Morgan about the Duchess of Sussex's reference to feeling suicidal - 54,453.
• Britain's Got Talent : 5 September 2020 - Objections to performance by Diversity on 5 September referencing political campaigns by Black Lives Matter (BLM) - 25,017.
• I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! - Welfare of animals used in trials on the show - 11,516.
• Britain's Got Talent : 19 September 2020 - Alesha Dixon wearing a necklace with the initials "BLM" being offensive and not suitable for a non-political show - 2,565.
• Britain's Got Talent : 10 September 2020 - Objections to Nabil Abdulrashid's performance on the grounds of finding it offensive - 2,253.
• Good Morning Britain - 15 April 2020 - Objections to Piers Morgan's manner of interviewing Helen Whateley MP - 2,017.
• Good Morning Britain - 22 April 2020 - Objections to Piers Morgan's manner of interviewing Helen Whateley MP - 1,334.
• Britain's Got Talent - 3 October 2020 - Objections to Nabil Abdulrashid's performance on the grounds of finding it offensive, and Amanda Holden's dress was too revealing, unsuitable for a family audience - 1,189.
• Good Morning Britain - 28 April 2020 - Perceived bias / bullying from Piers Morgan when interviewing Victoria Atkin, MP - 1,178.
• Good Morning Britain - 26 November 2020 - Disputed Rishi Sunak's claims that he had met with excluded UK leaders - 1,068.

Ofcom noted however:

In many of the cases above, we did not find the issues warranted an investigation.