Mark Steyn, a former presenter on GB News, has been ordered by the High Court to pay £50,000 (~$65,000) in legal expenses to the Office of Communications (Ofcom), which regulates communications in Britain. The payment is due by November 19. Steyn initiated legal proceedings against Ofcom after it determined that two of his 2022 broadcasts violated its standards, a conclusion he says “killed” his career.
The High Court ruling in July dismissed Steyn’s case, insisting Ofcom’s decisions were based on detailed reasoning. On Tuesday, the same judge expressed dissatisfaction that both parties had failed to settle the matter of legal costs amicably sooner, suggesting an agreement might have been possible with more prudent handling.
The broadcasts in question began with The Steyn Line, a monologue segment of Steyn’s GB News show. On April 21, 2022, Steyn discussed the country’s Covid vaccine rollout, using data from the UK Health Security Agency. Ofcom ruled on March 6, 2023, that the segment misrepresented the data, posing a risk to viewers.
A subsequent episode aired on October 4, 2022, featured an interview with author Naomi Wolf. During this segment, Wolf compared the vaccine rollout to “mass murder,” drawing parallels to “doctors in pre-Nazi Germany.” Ofcom concluded that GB News did not adequately protect viewers from potentially harmful content, describing Wolf’s statements as a “serious conspiracy theory.”
Steyn, who has since relocated to the United States, had been seeking to have these rulings overturned.
