Free Republic

Many have touted today's ruling in the High Court against Ofcom as a "win" for free speech. The initial optics are, of course, great and the usual suspects are taking a victory lap... Tom Harwood's former employer Guido Fawkes proclaimed: GB News Victorious Against Two-Tier Ofcom Fantastic! The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that. Unfortunately, after careful review of the actual decision in favor of GB News, I fear this will serve as a classic example of winning the battle but losing the war. Why be such a debbie-downer? Well... UPDATE: An Ofcom spokesperson says: "We...

It could be worse. Mark could be banged up in Belmarsh like poor old Tommy. Today, Justice Farbey of the High Court in London ruled: 1) the costs demanded by Ofcom are to be sent for detailed assessment on the standard basis 2) there will be a payment on account of £50,000 by 19 November 2024 3) Costs of today to be paid by the Claimants, save in relation to the written submissions which will be paid at 50% Mark will have twenty-one days to consider an appeal. Ofcom had demanded £144,959.28, refused to provide detailed billing to justify that...

We are, of course, disappointed with today's decision - but not entirely surprised given the narrow parameters we were fighting within. (click above for Dr Naomi Wolf's witness statement - delivered outside the court as she was not allowed to deliver it orally in court. Plus, my statement and Mark's - which were given in support of specific grounds in the case.) This started as a battle between GB News and Ofcom. GB News sacrificed Mark whilst he was recovering from two heart attacks in an attempt to appease Ofcom. As noted in the court's decision, Ofcom was able to...

~Two years ago tomorrow - July 13th 2022 - GB News became the first over-the-airwaves (and, in UK terms, Ofcom-regulated) broadcast network anywhere to air a one-hour special on victims of the Covid vaccines. All that year, I had covered the story in nightly segments with concerned medical professionals and, more importantly, with individual victims triply injured - first by myocarditis or Guillain–Barré syndrome or some other affliction, next by government stonewalling, then by the media's denial of their very existence. But at some point we thought it worth tying it all together for our first ever single-issue show with...

On July 1, 2024, the US detained its most prominent political prisoner; its most obvious political prisoner probably since the incarceration of Japanese-Americans in World War 2. On July 1 2024, podcaster, entrepreneur, former Navy officer, and political advisor to President Trump, Stephen K Bannon, “surrendered”, in his words, to authorities, to begin serving four months’ incarceration at Danbury Federal Prison. FCI — Federal Correctional Institution – Danbury, in Danbury, Connecticut, is a serious prison. The handbook, which all inmates receive, reveals a range of minute restrictions on liberty, and even on any adult decision-making, that characterizes strict incarceration. Stephen...

In London last week for my suit against the UK media censor Ofcom over our coverage of the Covid vaccines, I did wind up making a brief statement outside the Royal Courts of Justice. But, to be honest, having flown in a day after leaving hospital, I was pretty under par, and was happy to let my comrade in arms, Naomi Wolf, handle the full-strength pavement performance. I haven't had the stamina for stage and screen (or even, really, audio) for almost a year now, and it kind of shows. However, those interested can hear what I had to say...

Last Wednesday, over lunch, I had another heart attack (mild), necessitating a trip to hospital, where a couple of days later I had yet another (milder). If you're going to have heart attacks, a medical facility (other than the NHS or the University of Vermont Medical Center) is about the best place to have them, so the doctors and nurses couldn't understand why I was so eager to bust free of their ministrations and leap on a flight to Heathrow for the additional stresses of a hearing in the English High Court: Before MRS JUSTICE FARBEY DBE | COURT 2...

A conservative broadcaster in the United Kingdom received an official government warning for not being impartial and having politicians appear on the network without on-screen opposition. GB News was warned by the Office of Communications that some of their news shows were not unbiased enough. After an investigation that began in the summer of 2023, GB News was found to have violated Ofcom's regulatory guidelines surrounding impartiality in a total of five broadcasts. Two episodes of "Jacob Rees-Mogg’s State of the Nation," two episodes of "Friday Morning with Esther and Phil," and one episode of "Saturday Morning with Esther and...

Greetings from The Mark Steyn Caribbean Cruise, where we are sailing from the Bahamas to Jamaica. That's Leilani Dowding, Tal Bachman and Samantha Smith on stage with me for The Mark Steyn Show. ~I mentioned on Friday that, as part of their increasing dissatisfaction with the lousy Tories'n'trivia drivel of the current GB News output, Tweeters keep dusting off old clips of the way it used to be. I'd forgotten this bit, but it's not bad: 'Something is rotten in Oldham, Telford, Rotherham, Rochdale... on and on' Mark Steyn condemns the police forces that have issued ASBOs to individuals, after...

This sounded so exciting I thought I must try to book tickets. And then I remembered I've been stuck doing the out-of-town tryout for twelve years: NEW: Climate Change Is ON TRIAL ⚡️ Michael Mann & Mark Steyn will battle in court. The case will explore the hockey stick climate graph that rattled the world. Mark Steyn claims it's a fraud. Michael Mann believes it is our future. Find out: https://t.co/I7D8bzGPts pic.twitter.com/GuMKIRLXdT — Ann McElhinney (@annmcelhinney) January 11, 2024 More from Ann and Phelim here. Aside from their daily podcast, my former publicist Amy K Mitchell (whom some of you...

Fears antisemitic tropes are being spread after host Neil Oliver discusses plan to impose ‘one-world government’The UK’s leading Jewish organisation and a group of MPs have called on GB News and the media regulator Ofcom to tackle the broadcaster’s indulgence of conspiracy theories, warning that some recent segments and guests risked spreading ideas linked to antisemitism. The criticism comes as the channel faces increasing scrutiny over its mix of serious news with programmes that delve heavily into conspiracies about areas including Covid vaccines and a plot to create a world government. The decision by the Board of Deputies of British...

ITV has been ordered to treat UKIP as a “major party” in the run-up to the European Parliament elections in May. In a landmark ruling, broadcasting regulator Ofcom last night said the anti-EU party’s success in previous Euro elections meant it should be put on a par with the other main parties. ITV and Channel 5, which are regulated by Ofcom, were ordered to grant UKIP “major party status” in the run-up to May’s elections, guaranteeing it increased coverage. …

WHEN it comes to global warming, extreme scare stories abound. Al Gore, for example, famously claimed that a whopping six metres (20 feet) of sea-level rise would flood major cities around the world. Gore’s scientific advisor, Jim Hansen from NASA, has even topped his protégé. Hansen suggests that there will eventually be sea-level rises of 24 metres (80 feet), with a six-metre rise happening just this century. Little wonder that fellow environmentalist Bill McKibben states that “we are engaging in a reckless drive — by drowning of much of the rest of the planet and much of the rest of...