Electoral Commission: Urging public involvement

A legal challenge to restrictions on political advertising is becoming increasingly likely, the Electoral Commission indicated on Tuesday.

The warning came as the commission published a consultation document on the future of party political broadcasts, containing outline recommendations for changes to the tightly controlled system.

The commission suggested there are persuasive arguments for maintaining the current ban on paid-for political advertising in broadcasting, with a warning that radical changes to the rules would benefit only the wealthiest parties.

But there is a clear warning to ministers that without fresh legislation, the whole system could be open to legal challenge under European laws guaranteeing freedom of expression.

The document says any approach to regulating political broadcasts "needs careful treatment" because of a recent judgement of the European Court of Human Rights.

In a ruling on political advertising, which may not be directly applicable to the UK because of differing systems for regulating political advertising, the court found that restrictions on freedom of expression must be defensible in substance and must also be "prescribed by law".

The Electoral Commission said it believed the UK system would "survive scrutiny under the ECHR", but added that it needed to be written into UK law.

"We doubt whether the existing arrangements for free broadcasts are sufficiently clear, formalised and predictable, as expressed in law, to satisfy this requirement as it has now been elaborated in the Strasbourg case law.

"These implications do not appear to have been noticed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in their draft Communications Bill published in May 2002," said the consultation document.

TV ads

The Electoral Commission's initial findings are in favour of keeping party political broadcasts.

Commission chairman Sam Younger said: "Party political broadcasts are the only format in which political parties can directly address the electorate via broadcasting, and they act as an important counterbalance to the ban on political advertising."

The consultation document suggests that the rules on the allocation of broadcasts should be modernised to take account of non-terrestrial channels including digital, cable and satellite television.

Initial proposals suggest using an audience share threshold to determine which channels should be required to air the broadcasts.

And the current system, which sees decisions on the allocation of broadcasts being made by broadcasters, should be more clearly defined in law, said the commission.