Despite political ads on tv being prohibited, the small local tv station TV Vest ran three ads for the local branch of the Pensioners Party in 2003. As a result, they were fined 35.000 NOK (roughly €4.500). This they refused to pay on principal grounds and took the case to the Courts of Human Rights in Strasbourg. They claim that the ban is an offense against the rights of free speech. Yesterday, the Court decided in favour of the TV-station. So, the way things are looking, political advertising is in principle allowed... Interestingly, the British TV station Channel S was fined £40.000 on Wednesday this week for having run a total of 44 political ads for the Liberal Democrats. Also somewhat curious is that this case and the verdict has received very scarce attention in international media.
Check out the blog Word From the North for an interesting post about the ban, the case and the verdict.
6 comments:
I did not hear anything about the kind of campaigns TV political ads go to support in the United States. I'm there. I'd say they go to support campaigns of obsfucation. American ads address the political issue of the moment.
The American campaign, as I saw it, was between McCain who said we should vote for him because he was a war hero, and Obama who said he'd get better treatment for us from the corporations. There was very little effort to question them on the problems you could see coming in the economy, which are now smashing us up.
The problem for us isn't so much that there are political ads, or political discussion, but the kind of campaigns and the way the media portrays it as a horse race do not serve the voters.
The idea that ads are a kind of speech isn't so much of a problem. The problem will be that they will push the principle that money is a form of speech, so that to limit how much money anyone will be able to spend will be considered a limit on speech. This is the argument that allowed Obama to spend almost a billion US dollars on getting elected.--and we still didn't know what he would do in Iraq, for the economy specifically, or domestically.
I envy the fact that Norwegian television still has some public control and influence. You can still make the politicians answer to you in ways that Americans have lost for themselves.
Thanks for your (us usual) insightful comments, Steven.
I must say that I am somewhat surprised about this verdict - I never would have thought something like this would happen. And I am also a bit ambivalent about it, too, to be honest.
However, I think ads can take different forms. They can undoubtedly be obfuscating the campaigns, as you say. And they can simplify things too much, dumbing down the whole campaign - as will be a natural result of clips 15 seconds long..
Even though the ban on political advertising is lifted (unless the appeal will reverse the verdict), I don't think we will see anything like US-style adverts in Norway. It will be interesting to see how it turns out in any case.
As I said, I am a bit ambivalent about the ban being lifted, and I would rather have seen something along the British model (as outlined in my earlier post). If only our ministers would read my blog, they could try to get around this by suggesting something along those lines :)
I think we're going in the wrong direction if political ads are allowed. Then money will rule and the objective political arguments will vanish.
Politics should empowering people, not only the riches. But then again, I'm a Norwegian :-)
Btw: Hope you'll have a great Yuletide in UK :-)
This is bad we don`t need aouer politicians to get a new propaganda tool.
I really hope theses types of commercials will be heavily regulate.
As in no lies.
I am a bit skeptical myself also with political advertising now being allowed. The danger of even more power being given to wealthy corporations or individuals sponsoring the political parties. As I wrote in the earlier posting, I do not think that anyone gives away money for free.. I do very much agree with you, Renny, that politics should empower the people, not the rich elite.
That being said, it will still be interesting how it all turns out. Norway is not the United States of America, and I do not think political advertising in Norway will turn out very much like what we see there straight away. And yes - a certain degree of regulation here would be welcome..
As for propaganda - I don't think that we should mistrust our politicians that much that we think everything they say is propaganda and lies. Of course, we may wonder how nuanced and well-balanced a 15-20 seconds ad can really be, and if this is really helpful to present the parties' political message in an helpful way, but that is in my mind another question.
I wish you all a happy and merry Yule!
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