Religious ad ban backed by top court

Europe’s top human rights court today threw out a complaint by a pastor who claimed his freedom of speech was violated by an Irish ban on religious advertising.

The European Court of Human rights ruled a 1988 Irish law banning broadcasting of advertisements “directed toward any religious or political end” was in line with the human rights convention of the Council of Europe.

A seven-judge panel, sitting in Luxembourg, unanimously accepted the Government’s argument that the law was justified given the level of religious sensitivities in Ireland and need for neutrality in broadcast media.

The case was lodged at the European court by Roy Murphy of the Dublin-based Irish Faith Centre after the Irish Independent Radio and Television Commission blocked a planned broadcast in 1995.

Murphy turned to the European court after his case was rejected by the Supreme Court in 1998.