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In a recent application for judicial review, the Irish Supreme Court confirmed a High Court ruling regarding the broadcasting of a religious advertisement ( See IRIS 1998-1: 6). The High Court had upheld the refusal of the Independent Radio and Television Commission to permit an independent radio station to broadcast an advertisement for the showing of a video on a religious topic. Section 10 subsection 3 of the Radio and Television Act 1988, prohibits advertisements directed towards any religious or political end, or related to an industrial dispute. The appellant submitted that the subsection...

In April the High Court in Dublin decided a case concerning radio and television broadcasts in relation to constitutional referendums. Under the Irish Constitution, there must be a referendum before any amendment to the Constitution can be made. In 1995 a referendum to remove the constitutional ban on divorce gave rise to much litigation regarding the conduct of referendum campaigns. Just before the referendum, the Supreme Court held that the government had acted unconstitutionally inter alia by offending the constitutional guarantee of equality- in spending public money on a one-sided information...

In April, the Irish Supreme Court decided in favour of the national broadcaster, RTE, and a number of newspaper publishers, in an appeal taken by them against the decision of a judge in Cork in early 1997 to ban contemporaneous reporting of a drugs trial. The trial concerned four non-nationals charged in connection with the seizure of £47 million of cocaine. The media first sought judicial review in the High Court (The Irish Times Ltd, Examiner Publications (Cork) Ltd. Independent Newspapers Ireland Ltd, News Group Newspapers Ltd and Radio Telefis Eireann v Ireland, the Attorney General and His...

The Irish Supreme Court, in an important decision for the media and for investigative journalism, recently (NIB v. RTE - Supreme Court, 20 March 1998) lifted an injunction against RTE, the national public service broadcaster. In January, RTE had broadcast a news story to the effect that National Irish Bank (NIB) had operated offshore accounts designed to facilitate customers in evading tax. The Bank claimed that RTE's reports were ill-informed and that publication of the information would damage the relationship of trust and confidence between the Bank and its customers and damage irreparably the...

In 1997, the Irish High Court gave judgment on a preliminary issue of jurisdiction in relation to three actions in which the plaintiffs claimed damages, including aggravated and exemplary damages, arising out of a television documentary made by Carlton Television and distributed by Ulster Television (Ewins v Carlton [1997] 2 ILRM 223). The documentary concerned the activities and experiences of a member of the Provisional IRA, an unlawful organisation. Carlton broadcast only in mainland Britain but supplied the programme to other companies, including Ulster Television, which, simultaneously with...