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Strasbourg Court upholds UK ban on political advertising on TV and radio

24/04/13

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights dismissed an application by Animal Defenders International challenging on free speech grounds the UK's ban on political advertising in the broadcast media.

By 9 votes to 8 the Court held that the UK Parliament and courts had been entitled to conclude that it was justifiable to impose a very broad ban, capable of including social advocacy as well as core political speech.

The objective of preventing the democratic process from becoming hijacked by those with the deepest pockets was sufficiently important to justify such a broad ban.

The Court departed from the approach previously adopted to bans on political advertising in the case of VgT v Switzerland. Sir Nicolas Bratza, in his concurring opinion, endorsed the UK's criticisms of the VgT case.

The judgment is here.

Martin Chamberlain QC represented the UK Government before the Court in Strasbourg.