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Following the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Murphy v Ireland (judgment of 10 July 2003, see IRIS 2003-9: 3) that Ireland was not in breach of Article 10 ECHR, the Minister for Communications has decided to retain the ban on religious advertising. The ban had been invoked on a number of occasions to refuse advertisements, including the 2002 "Power to change" advertisements sponsored by the main Christian religions in the State (see IRIS 2003-2: 11). As a result, in March 2003, prior to the Court's decision, the Minister had initiated a public consultation on the issue, which...

As Ireland currently holds the presidency of the EU, the Minister for Communications has indicated that the protection of minors in the area of broadcasting will be one of his main priorities. The EU Commission is due to publish an update to the Recommendation on the Protection of Minors and Human Dignity in March with a view to a policy discussion on it at the meeting of the Council of Ministers in May. An informal Ministerial Council to be held in Ireland in early March will also discuss the future role of broadcasting in promoting and maintaining cultural diversity in an enlarged Europe.

On taking office, the new film censor, appointed in April 2003, declared that he wished to move away from a restrictive censorship process to a more positive guidance system. The first film he banned was Jonas Akerlund's Spun, which portrays a life of sex and drugs. However, his decision was overturned in a unanimous decision of the appeals board, which passed it without cuts but with an 18 certificate. Since then the film censor has announced plans to overhaul the current age classification system, which acts as a guide to parents. The censor plans to launch a web-site listing every movie passed...

The European Convention on Human Rights Bill, passed by the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) in June 2003, came into operation on 1 January 2004. Previously, although Ireland had played an active role in the drafting of the Convention and had been one of the first states to ratify it, it had not incorporated the Convention into domestic law. Ireland had been a dualist state in that the Convention, while binding on Ireland, was not binding in Ireland. Irish citizens who wished to avail of the Convention had to take their case to Strasbourg. Now, although the Convention has been incorporated into Irish...

On 23 December 2003, the Broadcasting (Funding) Act was promulgated into law. The purpose of the Act is, according to its long title, "to provide that the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland prepare a scheme or schemes for the funding of grants to support certain television and radio programmes and projects out of an amount of 5 per cent of net receipts for television licence fees, to outline the objectives of a scheme and to provide for related matters". The types of programmes that will benefit under any scheme(s) to be established pursuant to the new Act are listed in s. 2(1). These comprise...