The UK Radio and Television Regulator has allowed UK News and others to “flout” accuracy rules and broadcast climate change denial, campaigners say. Examples given include describing global warming as a “climate scam” and suggesting the government is about to introduce “forced veganism”.
Ofcom has received 1,221 complaints related to the climate crisis since January 2020, when its searchable database was launched. None of them resulted in a violation of the broadcasting code. In fact, only two such violations have been discovered since 2007.
Since March 2024, campaign group Reliable Media has made more than 50 complaints about GB News programmes. The group said the segments included false claims about the climate crisis that were either not challenged or were not balanced. Ofcom carried out an assessment but did not look into any of the complaints. Campaigners accused Ofcom of “effectively suspending its accuracy rules on this vital issue”.
In contrast, French regulator Arcom has found four climate crisis-related broadcast violations in the past two years. In one of them the right channel CNews fined 20,000 euros (£17,000) for a segment in which the speaker called climate change a “lie and a fraud.”
GB News said the campaigners were politically motivated and wanted to stop public debate.
The Guardian reviewed a sample of 18 complaints filed by Reliable Media. Among them was GB News presenter Ben Leo, who described global warming as “climate scam” in April 2025 and a guest on the show in September 2024, hosted by UK Reform Party leader Nigel Farage. criticizing those “who say, 'Oh, global warming, global warming, global warming,' as if it's a problem. Just go outside tonight and you'll see that's not really the case.” In November 2024, GB News presenter Leo Kearse incorrectly suggested that the UK government was going to introduce “forced veganism”.
Headliners regular Lewis Shaffer said in July 2024. that “climate change is nonsense” and that “climate is a full-fledged war,” not a “culture war.” A few weeks earlier, Shaffer stated “the truth is that climate change is not real” and that “we have been deceived.”
Another guest said in June 2024 that “since 1979, we have been testing changes and comparing them to UN model predictions… and it just doesn't happen as advertised.” In fact, UN climate models were amazingly accurate.
The burning of fossil fuels has led to “definitely caused global warming”According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC is a collaboration of thousands of leading scientists and its conclusions are signed by 195 member countries, including the UK. “Widespread loss and damage to nature and people” will continue to increase, the IPCC said, and rapid reductions in carbon dioxide emissions to net zero are needed: “There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to ensure a livable and sustainable future for all.”
Ofcom's broadcast code requires that factual programming “must not materially mislead the audience” and that “news in any form be reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality.” The Code further requires that “alternative viewpoints be adequately represented” when program hosts express their own views on issues of political controversy or public policy. The guidelines to the code added: “An example of an issue that Ofcom considers largely resolved is the scientific principles underlying the theory of man-made global warming.”
“Obviously we're all free to hold whatever opinions we like,” said Richard Wilson, director of Reliable Media. “But running a television or radio station [means] you promise to uphold some fairly simple standards of truthfulness and accuracy. The problem is that Ofcom is now allowing some TV and radio stations to break the rules, and on an issue like climate change the stakes couldn't be higher.”
Ofcom was “hiding behind a simplistic and distorted definition of freedom of expression”, he said, adding that Arcom's approach in France showed regulators could take strong action on climate disinformation.
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An Ofcom spokesman said: “We enforce our rules fairly and proportionately, acting independently and impartially at all times. Consistent with the right to freedom of expression, our rules allow for robust debate on topical issues and broadcasters are free to include controversial views in their programs as long as they comply with the code.”
In response to a freedom of information request, Ofcom said There have been “no recent investigations” into climate change. He stated that the only recorded investigations were carried out in 2017 and 2007, during which BBC Radio 4 And Channel 4 accordingly, they were found to have violated the broadcasting code.
A UK News A spokesman said: “Like all these politically motivated activist groups, the only thing that is 'safe' is their desire to shut down public debate – even if the broadcaster is fully abiding by the rules. Unfortunately for them, they are losing. GB News fearlessly covers all views, including those that may challenge the so-called consensus.”
Arcom has reported four climate change-related violations of its broadcasting code since 2023. In addition to fining CNews for a 2023 TV segment in which a speaker said climate change was a “lie, a fraud” and a “form of totalitarianism”, Sud Radio received warnings following programs in which “several statements contradicted or downplayed the existing scientific consensus on current climate change, in approaches lacking rigor and controversy,” which constituted “a failure of the company to meet its obligations of integrity.”
Arcom Deputy Director Pauline Combrede-Blassel: said in April: “Because there is scientific consensus on climate change, we check to see if it is mentioned in a controversial segment and only intervene if it is not.”
Eva Morel, QuotaClimateThe French campaign group that filed climate complaints with Arcom said: “It is perfectly normal to have different opinions on climate change. What becomes problematic is that society can no longer agree on facts, because facts are the basis of trust, which in turn underlies the law and, ultimately, democracy.”
She added: “When the media blurs the line between fact and opinion, it doesn't make people trust alternative truths; it makes them not believe anything at all. Sowing doubt about climate science hinders action on climate change and puts lives at risk.”
