Ofcom silent over contrast between ‘parasites’ decision and 2010 rulings on offensive language

The broadcasting watchdog has refused to explain why it appears to have become so much more reluctant to stand up against disability hate speech in the media over the last 15 years.

Ofcom was accused of failing millions of disabled people when Disability News Service (DNS) revealed last month that it had refused to investigate two television programmes over claims of disability discrimination and causing offence.

Concerns were raised about its treatment of complaints about a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary, Britain’s Benefits Scandal.

But the contrast with Ofcom’s past actions is particularly stark in how it dealt with complaints about comments made by journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who had demanded a “crackdown” on young people who were “supposedly too sick to work and being supported by the state”, in an interview on TalkTV.

Oakeshott, TalkTV’s international editor, said last autumn’s budget had removed resources from those who work “in order to keep on sustaining those who frankly can’t be bothered to get out of bed and get themselves out… to… any kind of job and prefer to just sit on the sofa and order their Deliveroo and drive their Motability free vehicle and take everything that the state can offer”.

The former political editor of The Sunday Times told presenter Kevin O’Sullivan on 31 October last year that “people like you and me and our very many listeners” were “grafting just to try to make ends meet, and basically these people are frankly parasites”.

But despite receiving 24 complaints about her comments, Ofcom decided not to “pursue” the complaints, claiming that although her words “had the potential to cause offence to some viewers”, its rules allowed for “the broadcast of controversial and provocative opinion… which regular viewers would expect from this programme”.

But DNS has now compared this response with Ofcom’s actions 15 years ago.

In 2010, the regulator ruled that broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson had made “discriminatory” comments when he told Top Gear viewers that the Ferrari F430 Especial should instead have been called the “430 Speciale Needs” because its “smiling front end” made it “look like a simpleton”.

Ofcom told the BBC that the comments had “the potential to be very offensive to some viewers, as it could be seen to single out certain sections of society in a derogatory way because of their disability”.

It concluded that Clarkson’s comments “were capable of causing offence” and “could easily be understood as ridiculing people in society with a particular physical disability or learning difficulty”.

Five months earlier, Ofcom had overturned another ruling and condemned the use of similarly offensive, disablist language on Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother’s Big Mouth.

Nine people with learning difficulties – and other campaigners – had protested at Ofcom’s original decision not to uphold complaints about actor Vinnie Jones “joking” that presenter Davina McCall walked “like a re**rd”.

DNS asked why describing a car as “speciale needs” and a presenter as walking “like a re**rd” were offensive, but describing young disabled people who were unable to work as “parasites” was not, an Ofcom spokesperson failed to answer the question.

Instead, she said the regulator assesses complaints about offensive content on “whether what has been broadcast raises issues warranting investigation in terms of generally accepted standards”, and that it takes “careful account of the contextual factors in each case”.

She said that Ofcom’s broadcasting code “takes account of the rights of broadcasters and audiences to freedom of expression” and does not prevent “the broadcast of content that may be offensive or controversial”.

She added: “We look at each case on its facts and therefore each decision we make is unique to the content and the particular circumstances.”

Eight of Ofcom’s 11 board members, including its chair, Lord Grade, were appointed by Conservative-led governments between 2016 and February 2024.

Picture: Jeremy Clarkson (left) and Isabel Oakeshott

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