{"id":701864,"date":"2026-07-20T16:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T16:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/701864\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T16:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T16:51:08","slug":"gb-news-will-not-be-investigated-over-no-riot-in-belfast-claim-gb-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/701864\/","title":{"rendered":"GB News will not be investigated over \u2018no riot in Belfast\u2019 claim | GB News"},"content":{"rendered":"

GB News will not be investigated by the media regulator after a presenter insisted there was no riot in Belfast <\/a>in June, despite cars and houses being set alight, attacks on police and families fleeing their homes.<\/p>\n

Ofcom received more than 400 complaints after the comments by Bev Turner, presenter of the broadcaster\u2019s Late Show Live, who said there \u201cweren\u2019t riots\u201d and that no houses had been burned in the violent disorder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no riot,\u201d she said in a show broadcast hours after the unrest. \u201cThere is not a house that has been burnt down. There are no riots.\u201d<\/p>\n

When a guest on her show, political commentator Matthew Stadlen, pointed to footage of burning cars and houses, Turner replied she had seen it and it was \u201cnot that dramatic\u201d.<\/p>\n

Burned cars and blackened walls of houses on 12 June after rioting in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

However, the regulator, which has come under heavy criticism over its approach to maintaining broadcasting accuracy and impartiality<\/a>, said it would not investigate the comments because Turner was challenged and had been expressing her own view.<\/p>\n

The violence in Belfast broke out after a Sudanese man was charged with attempted murder in relation to a knife attack. A video of the attack was posted by Tommy Robinson and other far-right figures, prompting demands for protests in response<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Turner later said on social media that she had been speaking in the early hours of the morning, when she had been \u201crelying on sparse footage and interpreting media descriptions\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said she feared the disorder would be used \u201cby the government to introduce more powers of control\u201d and that she believed Stadlen was \u201cpriming viewers at home to accept incoming restrictions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Critics of Ofcom\u2019s decision not to investigate, despite a total of 446 complaints, say it demonstrates the low bar the regulator has effectively set to comply with broadcasting rules.<\/p>\n

Richard Wilson, the director of campaign group Reliable Media, was among those who made a complaint. He said: \u201cWhether or not a house burned down is not a matter of opinion \u2026 It now looks like Ofcom has told GB News<\/a> that as long as someone in the studio disagrees with you, you can say what you like about settled facts. That\u2019s not regulation. It\u2019s a green light.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Banatvala, an independent media consultant who drafted Ofcom\u2019s code and investigation procedures when he was its founding director of standards, said Turner\u2019s comments were \u201cclearly misleading\u201d and risked \u201cfuelling conspiracy theories\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA broadcaster has an editorial voice which must respect the facts,\u201d he said. \u201cAt a time when Ofcom is cracking down on misinformation and adopting emergency measures for social media during periods of civil unrest, it appears to be allowing GB News to go unchecked, despite the higher legal standards that apply to broadcasters.\u201d<\/p>\n

A vehicle burns as riot squad officers battle protesters throwing projectiles on 10 June in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. Photograph: Charles McQuillan\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Ofcom said it had \u201ccarefully considered complaints about comments made by the presenter Bev Turner regarding civil unrest in Belfast\u201d.<\/p>\n

They added: \u201cTaking into account that the comments reflected her personal view and received robust challenge by a guest \u2013 who referenced specific aspects of the disorder which countered the presenter\u2019s own analysis \u2013 the programme did not raise potentially substantive issues warranting further investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

GB News was approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GB News will not be investigated by the media regulator after a presenter insisted there was no riot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-701864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}