Welsh journalist Guto Harri has reportedly resigned as a presenter at GB News, a day after accusing the station of becoming an “absurd parody” and pandering to the far right over his suspension for taking the knee while on air.
Defending himself in the Sunday Times newspaper, Harri blasted his former employer for “rapidly becoming an absurd parody of what it proclaimed to be” after he was suspended for breaching its editorial standards by taking the knee live on air.
"Rather than defending free speech and confronting cancel culture, [GB News] has set out to replicate it on the far right."
Despite GB News publicly scolding Harri for an “unacceptable breach” of the organisation’s editorial standards, the presenter claimed that he had informed producers ahead of time that he would take the knee and had been told to “do it to camera three.”
After he took the knee, Harri was suspended from presenting duties for the summer by GB News. Prior to his making the gesture, Harri had been discussing the issue of racist abuse directed towards England’s black football players after the team lost in the Euro final.
In his Sunday Times piece, Harri said GB News initially “proudly cascaded” his taking the knee “through social media”, adding that the station only issued an apology and criticised him for the incident after “a tsunami of disappointment, resentment and hate.” The journalist's resignation letter was reported by British media on Monday, who cited seeing the document.
When GB News launched in June 2021, it presented itself as a space where free speech thrives but the outlet has since faced criticism for pandering to a right-wing base and engaging in a culture war, while it tries to carve a place in the UK media landscape.