State to Regulate Political Advertising
New Proposed Electoral Advertising Law is Political Censorship :
It has been announced by RTE News that the government are planning to introduce legislation designed to 'regulate political advertising within election periods'. According to the government “ the plan is to protect the integrity of elections, ensure they are free and fair and not controlled by a narrow range of interests”.
We in Free Democrats Ireland believe this is simply state controlled political censorship, designed to silence alternative political opinions or at least to ensure they are not heard. Which will result in further protection for the status quo and political debate being directed towards the 'acceptable' issues that we the people are allowed to discuss, as decided by our dear leaders in Leinster House and the state controlled broadcaster RTE. It could also be argued that this is an infringement on property rights as the state will require various media platforms to block political advertisers that they deem are “under the scope of the regulation” and therefore this will effect the potential income of these platforms due to a loss in advertising revenue.
FDI believe it is essential to have fair and transparent elections and that it is the role of the state to protect the electoral process ie voting and counting of votes, but the debate up to this, the issues discussed, the manner of the debate cannot be regulated or must not be interfered with. Freedom of speech, informed dissent and open debate are the lifeblood of the democratic process. How can an electorate be informed if the incumbent government restricts access to all information and facts, even that which might be considered wrong or incorrect by some? Does the state think it has supremacy in judgment and needs to shield the electorate from all things which it considers incorrect or unpalatable? The sheer arrogance displayed by this is something which should not be accepted, not now and not never.
This proposed legislation along with the proposed “Hate Speech” legislation shows that the current government, aided and abetted by the so called opposition parties are busily setting about to limit debate and to steer discussion and speech towards what the state deems acceptable and desirable. In recent times we have heard that various political parties are prepared to 'fund' with taxpayers money regional newspapers and support journalists; this is another assault on democracy as without a free and unbridled press who challenges the state and the status quo? you see a toxic trend developing. We are in dangerous times and it is essential that this further expansion of state control is stopped.
