London Live sanctioned by Ofcom over interview in which David Icke said Israel was using COVID-19 to “test its technology”

Ofcom has sanctioned the television channel London Live for airing an interview with the antisemitic hate preacher and conspiracy theorist David Icke on COVID-19.

The regulator judged that Mr Icke’s views, which were unsubstantiated and went unchallenged in the interview with Brian Rose, “risked causing significant harm to viewers.”

In the interview, which aired on the first night of Passover, Mr Icke claimed that Israel was using the COVID-19 crisis to “test its technology”, among other conspiratorial contentions.

Ofcom commented that “we were particularly concerned by his  comments casting doubt on the motives behind official health advice to protect the public from the virus. These claims went largely unchallenged during the 80-minute interview and were made without the support of any scientific or other evidence.”

London Live will have to broadcast a summary of Ofcom’s decision “on a date and form to be decided by Ofcom”.

Mr Icke uses social media, his books and his stage performances to incite hatred. His preaching is so absurd that since the 1990s he has been dismissed as a crank, but because he is dismissed, there has been no major opposition to him and he has built up a following of thousands upon thousands of disciples whom he has persuaded to adamantly believe that the world is in the grip of a conspiracy run by the “Rothschild Zionists”. His repertoire includes conspiracy myths and tropes classified as antisemitic according to the International Definition of Antisemitism, adopted by the British Government. Campaign Against Antisemitism has successfully persuaded some venues to pull out of hosting his events.