The local television station London Live is facing sanctions after the media regulator, Ofcom, found it had posed a threat to the public’s health by showing a lengthy interview with David Icke about the coronavirus pandemic.

The little-watched channel, owned by Evening Standard boss Evgeny Lebedev, broadcast an 80-minute interview with the former footballer and noted conspiracy theorist earlier this month.

Icke used the broadcast to claim without evidence that the pandemic was cover for a supposed global world order to purposefully crash the economy, end the use of cash payments, and track every individual.

In a separate ruling on coverage relating to Covid-19, ITV was also warned to take care how it reports on repeatedly debunked claims linking 5G mobile phone networks to coronavirus, following comments by This Morning’s Eamonn Holmes.

Ofcom said London Live’s decision to broadcast the Icke interview “had the potential to cause significant harm to viewers in London during the pandemic” because his views were not sufficiently challenged by the host and viewers were not given extra context on the claims.

The channel had argued that it should not be sanctioned for showing the interview with Icke on the basis he was exercising freedom of expression. London Live said this was particularly important in the current circumstances, when civil liberties are being “constrained” and “threatened”. The station also said it was essential to question “conventional wisdom” and government action in a “responsible” manner.

Among the material London Live covered were assertions by Icke that Covid-19 was being used as a weapon of war by the US and Israel against Iran, as well as suggestions that any plan to immunise the world with a coronavirus vaccine was a plot to infect people with a “tidal wave of toxic shite”.

The broadcast was edited by London Live staff from a longer interview conducted for the similarly named but unrelated YouTube channel London Real.

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In a sign of how different forms of media are regulated, the London Live broadcast was watched by just 80,000 people, but has attracted regulatory scrutiny and sanctions. Meanwhile, a version of the original London Real interview remains available on YouTube, where it has racked up almost 6m views with no regulatory issues.

London Live unsuccessfully argued that it would be “illogical” and “unfair” for Ofcom to penalise it for broadcasting material that was still available on YouTube. A different interview involving Icke and London Real has been removed by YouTube, although none of it was broadcast on London Live.

Icke has enjoyed the attention paid to him as a result of the controversy around the broadcast, with Google search interest in his name spiking as a result.

Ofcom separately concluded that Holmes’s comments on ITV’s This Morning that people should challenge “the state narrative” around 5G phone masts “were ill judged and risked undermining viewers’ trust in advice from public authorities and scientific evidence”.

Although it said this was irresponsible, given recent attacks on mobile phone masts in the UK, it concluded that his subsequent clarification and other comments making clear the link was “fake news” meant there was no need to formally sanction ITV.