Britain’s media regulator Ofcom has launched a new probe against GB News, this time after receiving a complaint over an ongoing social campaign.
The campaign, called “Don’t Kill Cash,” asks viewers to sign a petition urging the British government to support paper currency over the long term, with the channel warning that the country was headed toward a “cash-less society.”
The network, which bills itself as “The People’s Channel,” claims as many as 5 million British adults still rely on paper currency to conduct financial transactions, though it did not cite any research proving that claim to be true.
The online petition launched this month has already collected more than 150,000 signatures, according to a report on the GB News website. But it could be short-lived, as Ofcom believes it might violate rules that require news presenters to offer impartial coverage of public policy matters.
“Our investigation does not seek to question the merits of the campaign itself,” a spokesperson for Ofcom said on Friday.
The probe is the latest involving GB News over the last few months. Earlier this week, Ofcom said it was investigating whether cabinet minister and GB News host Jacob Rees-Mogg violated a rule that prohibits politicians from acting as news presenters. In March, Ofcom said it was probing whether a weekend news program violated a similar rule.
