A major international study has found that the right-wing, Islamophobic broadcaster GB News is the country’s least trusted mainstream broadcaster.
The finding comes from the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026, widely regarded as the most authoritative annual study of global news consumption.
According to the report, only 29% of UK respondents said they trust GB News, while 44% said they do not trust it, giving the broadcaster a net trust score of minus 15.
By contrast, all of Britain’s other major television news brands recorded positive trust ratings:
- ITV News: +37
- BBC News: +36
- Channel 4 News: +30
- Sky News: +24
- GB News: -15
The figures mean GB News was the only major UK broadcaster with a negative net trust score.
Growing reach, declining trust
The findings highlight a paradox increasingly visible in Western media: audiences are fragmenting and turning to more opinionated outlets, even as they express scepticism towards them.
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Despite its trust deficit, GB News has expanded rapidly since launching in 2021.
The Reuters Institute noted that the channel has significantly increased its audience reach in recent years, with the broadcaster celebrating becoming one of the UK’s largest news brands by weekly consumption.
The report found that more opinionated news brands, along with tabloid newspapers, tend to attract lower levels of trust than traditional broadcasters.
Islamophobic narratives
GB News has frequently attracted controversy over its coverage of immigration, multiculturalism and Islam.
Several of its presenters and guests have been accused of amplifying anti-Muslim narratives, while supporters argue the channel simply gives voice to viewpoints they believe are ignored by the mainstream media.
The Reuters findings suggest that while GB News has found a sizeable audience, a substantial proportion of the British public remains unconvinced by its journalism.
The Reuters Institute Digital News Report is produced annually by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.
The 2026 report was based on almost 100,000 online news consumers across 48 markets worldwide, making it one of the largest international studies of its kind.
Data collection was carried out by the polling company YouGov using nationally representative samples of internet users in each country.
A channel that ‘hates Islam and Muslims’
In 2024 a Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) report concluded that GB News “hates Islam and Muslims.”
The CfMM analysed two years of GB News output and found a “structural and systematic bias” in the broadcaster’s reporting on British Muslims. Researchers said GB News displayed an “excessive” focus on Muslims bordering on an “obsession,” with stories about Islam being overwhelmingly negative and failing to reflect the diversity of Muslim communities in Britain.
Among the report’s key findings were:
- GB News mentioned Muslims or Islam more than 17,000 times over the two-year period, accounting for almost 50% of all mentions of Muslims across UK television news channels. By comparison, the BBC accounted for 32% and Sky News 21%.
- The report identified programmes such as Headliners and Patrick Christys Tonight as particularly focused on Muslim-related stories.
- Islamophobia was discussed 1,180 times on GB News, with researchers claiming the channel overwhelmingly sought to dismiss or undermine the concept of anti-Muslim prejudice.
- During the summer riots of 2024, GB News reportedly accounted for 62% of all clips on UK news channels linking Muslims to the unrest, frequently portraying Muslims as perpetrators rather than victims and downplaying attacks on mosques and Muslim communities.
The CfMM warned that such reporting risks fuelling discrimination and community tensions, arguing that the broadcaster’s portrayal of Muslims as a “Trojan horse” threatening British values could contribute to a climate in which hostility towards Muslims becomes normalised.
The report called on Ofcom to take a tougher approach towards broadcasters that repeatedly disseminate biased coverage which, it argued, misinforms viewers and risks encouraging division and disorder.
GB News rejected the report outright. A spokesperson described the findings as “inaccurate and defamatory” and accused the CfMM of attempting to silence free speech. The broadcaster argued that the allegations demonstrated precisely why GB News needed to exist and criticised the researchers for allegedly failing to seek responses from presenters before publication.
