Piers Morgan won’t face punishment for challenging homophobic magistrate
Ofcom has rejected a number of complaints against TV host Piers Morgan – after he challenged a magistrate who refused to place a child with same-sex parents.
Family Court magistrate Richard Page had insisted during an active adoption case that it would be better for a child to be placed “with a mother and father” than with their prospective parents, who are gay.
After complaints about the discriminatory comments, Page took his story to national media to claim he was being “persecuted” for his faith – but was subsequently struck off by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office. He is now pursuing a legal challenge.
Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan demolished Page’s “clearly homophobic” arguments in an interview last month – telling him “I can see why you’ve been sacked”.
Morgan said: “You’re basically homophobic. You don’t agree with same-sex marriage, you don’t agree with same-sex adoption…and to clarify you’re sitting on a family bench that is supposed to be allowing same-sex adoption if they meet all the criteria.”
Christian Concern ran an organised complaints campaign against Morgan, urging supporters to take the issue up with broadcast regulator Ofcom.
PinkNews found evidence of the group supplying complaint information to supporters who do not appear to have even watched the programme.
70 complaints were filed in total – but the media watchdog has this week dismissed all of them as “not raising issues warranting investigation”
A spokesperson said: “We assessed a number of complaints that Piers Morgan’s tone was offensive and discriminatory towards Christians in an interview.
“We noted that the interviewee was given several opportunities to respond. He stated he was not homophobic, and set out reasons why.
“Overall, the interview was balanced and we found no evidence of discrimination.”
Earlier this year, Ofcom cleared radio presenter Iain Lee of wrongdoing after he challenged a separate Christian Concern client – but the BBC Trust found he had ‘breached’ internal standards by being “unduly confrontational”. He was since dropped from his radio show.
