The landmark UK Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman could play a part in Ofcom’s assessment of complaints about TV shows, according to the regulator’s CEO.
Melanie Dawes acknowledged to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee (CMSC) today that last month’s controversial judgement, which defines a woman by biological sex, “is relevant and may affect how we approach any assessment of a complaint.”
She stressed that Ofcom “did not and does not give guidance to TV or radio companies about how they should handle questions of gender identity and sex-based rights.”
Several years back, Dawes was quoted chastising the BBC for its “extremely inappropriate” decision to “balance” appearances by transgender people on current affairs shows with activists from anti-trans pressure groups.
But today Dawes said “I think there was a bit of confusion around that story” as she noted the complexity of the Supreme Court ruling.
In what was an extremely high-profile case, the Supreme Court ruled that women can only now be legally defined by biological sex, which has already led to rule changes in areas including trans women competing in sports.
Last week, Deadline revealed that the likes of The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey, Babygirl’s Harris Dickinson and Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan were among more than 400 industry professionals to sign an open letter calling for industry action on trans rights. Another signee, Paapa Essiedu, generated headlines over the weekend after staunch anti-trans campaigner J.K. Rowling – who celebrated the Supreme Court ruling on social media – said his advocating for trans rights would not impact his position in the upcoming Harry Potter HBO series.
Michael Grade, Ofcom Chair and an ex-BBC, ITV and Channel 4 boss, said there will be “endless debates going on inside newsrooms, current affairs teams and doc-makers about how to make sure they don’t fall foul of the [Supreme Court] act going forwards.”
“It is for them to decide,” he added. “It is for us to step in post-transmission if there is a complaint, and we would look at that.”
“GB News has significantly improved”
GB News presenter Jacob Rees-Mogg
GB News
During a wide-ranging committee session, Dawes revealed that Ofcom will in a few days’ time unveil the results of its consultation on the rules over politicians presenting news and current affairs programmes, which was sparked by various impartiality breaches by right-leaning firebrand network GB News.
Having lost a landmark legal battle against GB News over a report by presenter and ex-politician Jacob Rees-Mogg, Dawes sought to calm the waters today.
“GB News has had specific issues around the code but in the recent past their compliance record has been significantly improved,” she added. “Ultimately that is what we are aiming for, to get compliance of the code and allow for free expression while safeguarding standards for the public.”
Dawes and Grade stressed the need to balance free expression with due impartiality several times during the CMSC hearing. While audiences do not want to see politicians presenting straight news shows, Dawes said they would not want to ban them from presenting current affairs chatshows.
The execs were also grilled on the rumors around foreign buyers Banijay and RedBird IMI taking interest in acquiring ITV or its production arm ITV Studios.
RedBird IMI, which is a state-funded enterprise of the United Arab Emirates, was blocked from buying British newspaper The Telegraph last year and Dawes said Ofcom may play a role “depending on the circumstances” of any ITV takeover.
Grade pointed out that UK network Channel 5 is owned by a non-UK company in Paramount. He said Channel 5 is “doing extremely well under its ownership, quite a bit better than it used to.”
