TV channel GB News has faced criticism after seemingly going off air during the Remembrance Day two-minute silence.
Those watching GB News during the silence, which is held at 11am every Remembrance Sunday to honour members of the armed forces, were instead treated to an “off-air” test card, along with a sustained beeping sound.
After a minute of the test card appearing onscreen, and the accompanying beeping, the channel then went straight into advertisements.
Viewers criticised the incident on social media, with many noting the irony of it occurring on GB News, a right-leaning channel that has devoted significant airtime in recent weeks to the importance of Remembrance Day.
“Imagine how outraged GB News would be if that was any other channel’s coverage of the two minutes’ silence,” one person wrote on X/Twitter.
“Sadly a shambles of RD [Remembrance Day] coverage by GB News,” another person wrote. “Not even an apology for cutting off in the 2 mins silence giving us endless ads.”
“Supposed to be a 2 minute silence and this was GB News wtf…. Shame on you and your disrespect,” commented someone else.
“Shame we didn’t get to see any of this due to the feed cutting out during the second minute! Very bad form GBN,” another viewer wrote.
Others called for the broadcaster to issue an apology.
One person wrote: “Are @GBNEWS actually oblivious to the fact they were cut off at 11am @MartinDaubney @CarverEmily is anyone listening? We were completely cut off at 11am to blank screens and loud high-pitched noise!! Where is the apology to the public?”
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Someone else commented: “You need to explain and apologise for whatever happened to your coverage at that crucial moment. And do it SOON.”
On Monday (11 November), Angelos Frangopoulos, the CEO of GB News, issued an apology in a statement to The Independent. “We sincerely apologise for the unfortunate technical issues that occurred during our Remembrance Sunday coverage, which regrettably resulted in the omission of the planned two minutes silence,” he said.
“We recognise that this moment holds deep significance as a time of reflection and respect for those who have given their lives in service. Missing this solemn observance due to a technical error was deeply unfortunate, and we fully understand our viewers and listeners disappointment and concern.
“We are taking this matter very seriously. An internal review is already underway to understand the exact nature of the outage and to implement measures that will prevent such issues in the future.”
Last month, it was announced that broadcasting watchdog Ofcom is issuing a fine of £100,000 to GB News after finding that it had broken impartiality rules earlier this year.
The infraction concerned an interview with then-prime minister Rishi Sunak, who had, Ofcom concluded, been afforded a “mostly uncontested platform” to promote Conservative policies and his government’s performance, while answering questions from a studio audience and presenter.
In a statement, Ofcom said: “We concluded that the then prime minister, Rishi Sunak, had a mostly uncontested platform to promote the policies and performance of his Government in a period preceding a UK general election, in breach of Rules 5.11 and 5.12 of the Broadcasting Code.
“Given the seriousness and repeated nature of this breach, Ofcom has imposed a financial penalty of £100,000 on GBNews Limited. We have also directed GB News to broadcast a statement of our findings against it, on a date and in a form determined by us.”
GB News is challenging the decision in a judicial review, and has claimed that the decision is “a direct attack on free speech and journalism in the United Kingdom”.
