A legal tussle for the right to communicate

ADBUSTERS

For 20 years we were knocked back at every stage: we were defeated in the lower courts and the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear our appeals. But last April, we finally scored a great legal victory. In a unanimous decision, the British Columbia Court of Appeal overturned previous court rulings and concluded that television airtime may indeed constitute public space. This crucial ruling allows Adbusters to proceed with its groundbreaking case against media conglomerates.

A legal tussle for the right to communicate

Every human being has the unassailable right to seek, receive and impart information without hindrance.

This right, enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is something for which we at Adbusters have been fighting since our inception. Our not-for-profit group, Adbusters Media Foundation, was born 20-years ago in response to broadcaster censorship that refused to run our citizen-produced ads. Over the last two decades, we have been censored by television networks all over the world and we have launched numerous legal actions in Canada against the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and private broadcasters (notably CanWest Global), fighting for the right of citizens to walk into their local TV stations and buy 30 seconds of airtime for a message they believe in.

For 20 years we were knocked back at every stage: we were defeated in the lower courts and the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear our appeals. But last April, we finally scored a great legal victory. In a unanimous decision, the British Columbia Court of Appeal overturned previous court rulings and concluded that television airtime may indeed constitute public space. This crucial ruling allows Adbusters to proceed with its groundbreaking case against media conglomerates.

In order to take our fight to the next stage, we need an immediate injection of funds. We are asking for donations from people all over the world who believe that information rights are the key to a flourishing democracy and that those rights are now more imperative than ever in giving citizens a voice in navigating our path through the dangerous times ahead.

To donate, please visit www.adbusters.org/donate … or send a cheque to Adbusters Media Foundation … or give us a call at 604-736-9401/1-800-663-1243 (toll free in North America). As Adbusters has subscribers in 20 countries around the world, we are also trying to get in touch with media lawyers in the US, Australia and the UK who are interested in launching Right To Communicate legal actions in their own countries.

If you have ideas, need more information or want to talk strategy, email kono@adbusters.org.

for the wild,

Kalle Lasn
Editor and Co-founder, Adbusters Media Foundation