Pro-lifers win right to challenge BBC ban on film
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The possibility of graphic images of aborted foetuses being broadcast on British television moved a step closer yesterday after the Court of Appeal allowed an anti-abortion group to challenge a BBC ban on its party election broadcast.
In what could prove a landmark case, the Pro-Life Alliance claims the ban breaches the right to freedom of expression enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights.
The BBC refused to air the film, which showed lawfully aborted foetuses under 14 weeks old, saying it offended public taste and decency. The High Court upheld the BBC's decision in an emergency hearing days before the broadcast was to be shown in June.
Although the Pro-Life Alliance, which fielded parliamentary candidates across England and Wales, claimed the ban had no legal basis, Mr Justice Scott Baker refused the group leave to appeal.
But in a written four-line judgment, the Court of Appeal has now overruled the High Court, paving the way for the first test case in a British court on Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Lord Justice Mummery held that the case "raised important issues which should be argued before the full court".
The appeal hearing is likely to take place in November. If it is successful, the Pro-Life Alliance – which wants all forms of abortion made illegal – will screen its unedited film as a party political broadcast.
The group hopes to exploit a House of Lords judgment this year that said cases involving the Human Rights Act rely on a higher standard of scrutiny than previously supposed. The law lords ruled that the normal "Wendesbury" defence of a breach, where a party can resist judicial review if it made a wrong but "reasonable" decision, did not apply.
Bruno Quintavalle, a barrister and leader of the Pro-Life Alliance, told The Independent the BBC had turned down three different revised versions of the broadcast. It eventually broadcast a heavily edited film without the images.
"We gave them plenty of time to make a decision but they left it until late in the election campaign. We don't see why we should be prevented from showing images of what happens in a legal activity paid for by the taxpayer," he said.
A spokeswoman for the BBC defended its decision to insist on heavy editing of the broadcast. "We thought that the court was right in the first instance and we will be resisting any appeal. All broadcasters decided that the first version of the tape that was submitted would not conform to our guidelines on taste and decency," she said.
The case is the latest in a string of legal actions by the Pro-Life Alliance, many of them successful. The Government has promised fresh legislation on cloning research after the group argued earlier this year that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 did not foresee the cloning in 1997 of Dolly the sheep by cell nuclear replacement.