“No politician may be used as a newsreader, interviewer or reporter in any news programmes unless, exceptionally, it is editorially justified. In that case, the political allegiance of that person must be made clear to the audience.”
(Source: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2023/ofcoms-rules-on-politicians-on-tv-and-radio)
But what we see here is these programmes being billed not as news, but as talk shows or current events programmes which allows them to sidestep this.
An example of an article which lists a series of complaints being investigated by ofcom as of September 2023: https://www.thenational.scot/news/23799032.full-list-gb-news-shows-investigation-ofcom/
Note:This is from The National, an outlet which is very anti-Tory and I’m sure subject to a few impartiality complaints itself!
I believe ofcom almost agree too…
“No politician may be used as a newsreader, interviewer or reporter in any news programmes unless, exceptionally, it is editorially justified. In that case, the political allegiance of that person must be made clear to the audience.” (Source: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2023/ofcoms-rules-on-politicians-on-tv-and-radio) But what we see here is these programmes being billed not as news, but as talk shows or current events programmes which allows them to sidestep this. An example of an article which lists a series of complaints being investigated by ofcom as of September 2023: https://www.thenational.scot/news/23799032.full-list-gb-news-shows-investigation-ofcom/ Note:This is from The National, an outlet which is very anti-Tory and I’m sure subject to a few impartiality complaints itself!
They literally rely on their own blog post to take that position, it’s not what they rules they have been given state.