On Wednesday 12 March the Lords Appeal Court dismissed an appeal by the animal rights organisation Animal Defenders International (ADI) against a ban on a proposed advertisement on television.

ADI is the international campaigning wing of the National Anti Vivisection Society. In 2005 it launched a campaign entitled ‘My Mate’s a Primate’. It was refused permission to advertise on television by the responsible body—the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre. Advertisements are banned if they are of a ‘political nature’.

One of the Lords described the proposed advertisement as showing an animal’s cage, in which a chained girl gradually emerges from the shadows into view; the screen goes black and the following messages appear: ‘A chimp has the mental age of a 4 year old’; ‘Although we share 98% of our genetic makeup they are still caged and abused to entertain us’; ‘Please help us to stop their suffering by making a donation today’; the final shot is of a monkey in a cage in exactly the same position as the girl was in.

The Lords recognised that drawing a line inevitably means that ‘hard cases will arise falling on the wrong side of it, but that should not be held to invalidate the rule if, judged in the round, it is beneficial’.

It was further commented that:

‘It takes little imagination to understand how powerful this [advertisement] would be… They can seek to put their case across in any other way, but not the one which so greatly risks distorting the public debate’

RDS took no position on this court case. We recognise both the right to freedom of expression in the UK, and the limitations of that right as decreed by the law. One of the Lords pointed out that those laws were there to stop the ‘mischief’ of partial political advertising. ADI is complaining bitterly that it has been ’gagged‘. At least we are now spared the mischief of distorted and misleading TV advertisements from animal rights groups like ADI.