Ofcom boss Adam Baxter has defended the regulatory body’s ruling over Piers Morgan’s Good Morning Britain rant.
The outspoken broadcaster’s comments about Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle topped the organisation’s list of most-complained about programmes in 2021 with 54,595 complaints.
Reflecting on the case during a review of the year as a whole, Ofcom’s director for Standards and Audience Protection wrote: ‘The judgments we make each day are often finely balanced – such as our highest profile case this year: Piers Morgan’s comments on Good Morning Britain in the wake of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s interview with Oprah Winfrey.
‘But, given the importance of the right to freedom of expression, we only step in or take action against a broadcaster when we consider it necessary.
‘This year we concluded 33 investigations and recorded 20 breaches of our rules. Many of these cases were about hate speech or harmful, scientifically unfounded Coronavirus misinformation.’
Responding to the news on Twitter, Piers later tweeted: ‘Delighted to have perpetrated the most complained about moment on UK TV for 2021…. especially because every single one of the absurd complaints was rejected.
Thanks Princess Pinocchio!’
Earlier this year, Piers quit GMB after a huge number of complaints were made about remarks he made concerning the Duchess’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, when she discussed her mental health and previously suffering from suicidal thoughts.