• Home /
• Statewatch Database /
• NI: Censorship

NI: Censorship

01 July 2003

In September 1992, BBC2 broadcast a discussion of political violence on its "Nation" series. Participants included a representative of the African National Congress (ANC), former Northern Ireland Minister Peter Bottomley and Bernadette McAliskey. For some of the discussion McAliskey's voice was replaced by subtitles because a senior BBC editor judged that what she said fell within the terms of the 1988 broadcasting ban. This is supposed to prevent broadcasts which support or invite support for political violence and it is routinely used to prevent the voices of Sinn Fein members being broadcast on TV or radio. McAliskey, who is not a member of Sinn Fein, applied for a judicial review of the BBC's decision and Justice MacPherson ruled that judicial review was the wrong remedy, she should take an action for defamation instead. In July, however, Lords Bingham, Steyn and Waite overturned MacPherson's ruling, appreciating the point that explanations of political violence are not the same as justifications or support for violence, where the line might be drawn between the two requires a full hearing in court.

The Dublin High Court ruled on 16 July that the RTE (television station) was correct to use section 31 of the Broadcasting Act to ban a 20 second radio advertisement for a book of short stories published by Brandon Books. The author of the book entitled "The Street" is Gerry Adams, the President of Sinn Fein and the advert included his voice. The legal argument turned on whether Adams the novelist could be distinguished from Adams the politician. The judgement appears to widen the scope of Section 31 following the recent ruling that RTE was wrong to ban an interview with a trade unionist involved in a strike simply because he was a member of Sinn Fein.