TalkRadio fined £75,000 over ‘impartiality’ failure with George Galloway’s comments on Salisbury poisoning and antisemitism

Ofcom rebukes former MP for calling listeners 'gutless cowards' over differing political views

TalkRadio has been fined £75,000 over failing to uphold “impartiality” during episodes of a show hosted by former MP George Galloway.

Three episodes of Mr Galloway’s programme failed to maintain due impartiality while talking about the Salisbury poisoning and allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party, the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom said.

“Under Ofcom rules, all broadcasters must remain duly impartial when covering matters of major political controversy,” Ofcom said.

“TalkRadio failed to do so in three episodes of the George Galloway programme during discussions about the poisoning of Yulia and Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, and allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party.”

Mr Galloway was sacked from the station in June 2019 after he was accused of antisemitism for congratulating Liverpool FC over beating Tottenham Hotspur FC in the Champion League final by tweeting “No #Israël [sic] flags on the Cup!”

The former MP said he was referring to a number of Tottenham fans who were flying the flag of Israel in the crowd, while TalkRadio said it would “not tolerate antisemitic views.”

In Ofcom’s ruling against the station’s licence-holder, TalkSport Ltd, the watchdog said the “limited viewpoints” on Mr Galloway’s programme which did not align with his own were “treated in a very different way to those that did”.

TalkSport, the licensee for TalkRadio, said Ofcom should “exercise caution in sanctioning political speech” as the views expressed did not amount to “hate speech or gravely offensive material.”

On three occasions, the former MP joked that listeners who had sent messages about the Salisbury poisoning that differed from his position were writing from Broadmoor psychiatric hospital.

Mr Galloway used his weekly radio programme to cast doubt on the UK government’s conclusion of Russian involvement in the poisoning of Yulia and Sergei Skripal in 2018.

In two instances, Mr Galloway also described a listener who expressed views which differed from his own as a “gutless coward” and in one of those cases described the listener as an “ignorant moron” and criticised their spelling, Ofcom’s ruling said.

The watchdog previously found that Mr Galloway breached broadcasting rules by presenting allegations of antisemitism in Labour as a concocted means to criticise party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

TalkRadio and Mr Galloway have been approached for comment by The Independent on the ruling.

The radio station previously said in a statement: “You expect robust opinions from George Galloway, but we accept that on this occasion he crossed the line.

“As a station we understand the need for dissenting voices with a range of counter-opinions.”

Ofcom also said an episode of the news programme Today on TV channel NTV Mir Baltic, which discussed the political aftermath of the Salisbury poisoning, failed to maintain due impartiality.

The licence-holder for the channel, which is aimed at Russian speakers in the Baltic states, has been fined £20,000 for breaking broadcasting rules.

Both stations will have to broadcast a summary of Ofcom's findings.

Additional reporting by AP