Mark Steyn, a former presenter on GB News, has been ordered to pay £50,000 in legal expenses to the Office of Communications (Ofcom).
The order comes as Ofcom found two of Steyn’s 2022 broadcasts to have violated its communication standards.
In April 2022, Steyn discussed the COVID-19 vaccines using data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), The Guardian reported. Ofcom later ruled that the show violated its policies by giving a “materially misleading interpretation” of the data.
In October 2022, Steyn’s show featured an interview with author Naomi Wolf, who compared the vaccine to “mass murder.”
Wolf’s comments were considered to be supporting a “serious conspiracy theory,” according to Ofcom. Following the incident, Justice Judith Farbey said Ofcom was “entitled to conclude” that the programs breached policy, rejecting Steyn’s challenge to Ofcom’s decision.
The High Court has now ordered Steyne to pay the £50,000 fine by November 19.
In June, Steyn’s lawyer told the court that the rulings “against his show have killed his career, killed his career in the UK, and given rise to what he describes as crude defamation … recycled through the London papers as if they had the force of criminal convictions.”
Steyn left GB News in 2023.
After he left the network, Steyne launched his own show, where he featured a vaccine special to discuss possible issues with the COVID-19 vaccines.
