{"id":434509,"date":"2026-03-26T18:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T17:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=434509"},"modified":"2026-03-26T18:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T17:40:14","slug":"british-regulator-ofcom-to-investigate-broadcaster-climate-denial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=434509","title":{"rendered":"British Regulator OFCOM to Investigate Broadcaster Climate Denial"},"content":{"rendered":"
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AI generated by Grok<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by<\/strong> Eric Worrall<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently \u201cdangerous climate lies\u201d like claims there is no climate emergency should not be allowed to go unchallenged in TV programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Ofcom to investigate complaints of climate change denial for first time since 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exclusive: UK regulator makes U-turn over TalkTV and TalkRadio complaints after claims it let some broadcasters \u2018spout dangerous climate lies\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Damian Carrington<\/a>
Environment editor Wed 25 Mar 2026 00.46 AEDT<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Complaints about programmes on TalkTV and TalkRadio were assessed by Ofcom, which then decided not to investigate, the same result as more than 1,000 other climate complaints since 2020. However, after a letter from the Good Law Project<\/a> (GLP) in January, requesting an explanation for the rejections, Ofcom said it had withdrawn its original decision<\/a> and would \u201cconsider afresh\u201d the complaints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One complaint was about comments from a Talk guest who said in November that climate change \u201cwas a deliberate effort to create fake anxiety \u2026 out of something that is false\u201d. In the second case, also in November, another guest said the Labour government\u2019s energy policies were \u201csuicidal\u201d, \u201cdriven by pseudoscience in many cases\u201d and \u201ca kind of cultish behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRightwing channels have been allowed to spout dangerous climate lies, unchecked, for too long,\u201d said a GLP spokesperson. \u201cWe\u2019re glad Ofcom is finally listening and await the conclusion of the investigations. Should it fail to take action against Talk\u2019s misinformation, we will not hesitate to hold them to account.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Ofcom spokesperson said: \u201cIn re-examining the programmes, we concluded that they raise potentially substantive issues under the broadcasting code which warrant investigation. We have, therefore, opened investigations [on] whether they breached our rules on due impartiality and material misleadingness.\u201d Ofcom said it had also opened another climate-related investigation after a viewer complaint about another TalkTV<\/a> programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026Read more: https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2026\/mar\/24\/ofcom-complaints-climate-change-denial-talktv-talk-radio<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Climate skeptic websites for now do not appear to be part of the investigation. OFCOM has the power to investigate websites<\/a>, and extensions to this power are being considered which might be applied to websites like WUWT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an age where British people can be arrested for an unkind Facebook post, the threat of regulatory investigation of statements like climate change \u201cwas a deliberate effort to create fake anxiety \u2026 out of something that is false\u201d appears to represent a dangerous step towards shutting down freedom to criticise climate claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate change is not fake, in the sense the world has warmed since the mid 1800s. What is fake is this represents any kind of emergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a sad day for Britain. Britain can reasonably claim to be the birthplace of modern parliamentary democracy. The history of British parliaments stretches back to AD 1236, when King Henry III summoned the parliamentum generalissimum<\/em>. Most of that history represents an advance of people\u2019s right to speak, a gradual replacement of absolute tyranny with representative democracy. Threatening or curtailing people\u2019s right to make a claim in public about a scientific point of view, whether you agree with those expressed views or not, is a major step backwards in this tradition of freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in Shakespeare\u2019s time, in the late 1500s to early 1600s, the British enjoyed a level of freedom unknown throughout most of the world. Shakespeare wrote plays which were widely seen as criticisms of royal policy or conduct, without being punished for his impudence \u2013 though he faced investigation on at least one occasion<\/a>, for allegedly encouraging insurrection. But even Shakespeare didn\u2019t face harassment for his scientific views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For hundreds of years the appropriate way to respond to a scientific claim you disagreed with was to publish a counter claim. <\/strong>There is no tradition of having government censors on programmes to immediately dispute or red label everything the government disagrees with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now we face a massive retrograde step, an attempted shutdown of free speech, the right to express views about science, which is on a par with the speech regulation of the religious tyrannies of the Middle Ages, when speaking out against religious interpretations of nature and divinity was severely punished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this really the kind of future Britain wants, where disputing claims we are in a climate emergency is treated as blasphemy?<\/strong> Where broadcasters are required to include a representative of government approved views whenever science is discussed? Because this is where Britain is currently headed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apparently \u201cdangerous climate lies\u201d like claims there is no climate emergency should not be allowed to go unchallenged in TV programmes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":434513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818056,691822179,691842026,691842027,691823641],"class_list":{"0":"post-434509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-climate-lies","10":"tag-climate-science-scepticism-and-denial","11":"tag-climate-skeptic-websites","12":"tag-ofcom","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-trial-of-Galileo-Galilei.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1P2d","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":434618,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=434618","url_meta":{"origin":434509,"position":0},"title":"Ofcom to investigate complaints of climate change\u00a0denial","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"27\/03\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"This is frightening. 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Lord Michael Hintze is alleged to have given \u00a32,000 to the minister\u2019s local constituency \u2013 a sum that should keep local volunteers supplied with paper clips and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Ben Pile\"","block_context":{"text":"Ben Pile","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=ben-pile"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0SPRH6NWGVUKKNLOO6LCFBP6URQ.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0SPRH6NWGVUKKNLOO6LCFBP6URQ.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0SPRH6NWGVUKKNLOO6LCFBP6URQ.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0SPRH6NWGVUKKNLOO6LCFBP6URQ.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0SPRH6NWGVUKKNLOO6LCFBP6URQ.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":259767,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=259767","url_meta":{"origin":434509,"position":5},"title":"Media Bombshell: Shocking Outbreak of \u2018Climate Disinformation\u2019 in the Media, i.e., Journalists Asking Questions About Net Zero on GB News and Talk TV","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"30\/05\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Green agitators working on the climate \u2018blacklist\u2019 site\u00a0DeSmog\u00a0have \u201cscoured hours of online footage\u201d and\u00a0concluded\u00a0that many journalists and presenters working at GB News are a tad sceptical about claims that the \u2018climate emergency\u2019 is rapidly approaching the point of no return and only the collectivist Net Zero project holds out any\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"BBC\"","block_context":{"text":"BBC","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=bbc"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0burn-stupid-burn.png?fit=1055%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0burn-stupid-burn.png?fit=1055%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0burn-stupid-burn.png?fit=1055%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0burn-stupid-burn.png?fit=1055%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0burn-stupid-burn.png?fit=1055%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=434509"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434514,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434509\/revisions\/434514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/434513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=434509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=434509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=434509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}