Jon Gaunt loses appeal against Ofcom censure

Former TalkSPORT presenter Jon Gaunt has lost his appeal of a High Court ruling which upheld Ofcom's censure of him in 2009.

Gaunt was sacked from the radio station in 2009 after a live interview with councillor Michael Stark, who he called an "ignorant pig" and "health nazi". The incident generated 53 complaints to the regulator.

Ofcom later claimed that Gaunt had breached its Broadcasting Code with his use of "offensive" language and material.

Last year Gaunt challenged the ruling in the High Court with the backing of human rights organisation Liberty, claiming that Ofcom's ruling infringed Article 10 of the Human Rights Convention.

He lost the challenge, with the high court describing the interview as a "rant", which was both "offensive and abusive".

Gaunt appealed this decision which was today dismissed by three judges in the Court of Appeal.

Lord Neuberger said the combination of the "extremely aggressive tone of the interview, the constant interruptions, the insults, the ranting, the consequent lack of any substantive content, and the time which the interview was allowed to run on", made it appear clear that Ofcom was right to find a breach of the code.

He also said that as Gaunt had been dismissed by TalkSPORT by the time the finding was published "there is no suggestion in the evidence or submissions made on his behalf that he has lost any particular work as a result of the finding".

"His reputation as a very hard-hitting journalist may mean that the finding has done him no damage, but, if it has, it does not only appear to be hard to identify, but it would be an inevitable consequence of any system of controlling broadcasts. That point serves to underline the importance of anxiously scrutinising any curb on freedom of expression, but it goes no further than that, and anxious scrutiny is precisely what Ofcom gave the matter."

He added that all the factors "render it impossible to accept" that the publication of Ofcom's finding represented an interference with his right to freedom of expression.

"The point that the topic covered by the interview was of public interest is of limited force, once one considers the actual contents of the interview.

"Apart from appreciating that Mr Stark and Redbridge [council] believed that tobacco smokers should not be allowed to foster children, which would have been known from the introduction to the interview, a listener would have had no further idea of his views or reasons, because he was not allowed to express them."

Journalism.co.uk is awaiting comment from Jon Gaunt.

In a statement Ofcom said it was pleased with the result.

"Parliament gave Ofcom a duty to ensure that whilst standards in programmes are maintained, the right to freedom of expression is also protected.

"Ofcom regularly makes decisions under the Broadcasting Code that respect and balance these principles."

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