TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
The making of Planet Key
Publication
The Electoral Commission’s intervention
The definitions of election advertisement and election programme
Protected rights engaged
The issues
Planet Key and Greenpeace
Election advertisements
The legislation
Effect
Editorial content
Personal political views expressed via the internet
Parallel campaigners as the intended target of regulation
The Commission’s gatekeeper role
Conclusions
The song and video were not election advertisements
Election programmes
The legislation
Programme
Election programme
Prohibition not confined to paid programmes
Comments
The song and video were not election programmes
Overview
Decision
[1]
[5]
[10]
[11]
[17]
[23]
[26]
[37]
[40]
[40]
[53]
[54]
[59]
[62]
[66]
[68]
[70]
[77]
[78]
[83]
[88]
[100]
[102]
[105]
[111]
[112]
Introduction
[1]
Electoral law protects both the right to vote and the right to free expression.
The two rights are complementary, but a full and effective right to vote also requires
that political parties and candidates compete transparently and under rules applicable
to all. So the legislation regulates election advertising on the premise that the public
interest justifies the resulting restrictions on free speech. It also confers advisory and
policing functions upon the Electoral Commission.
[2]
Planet Key was a satirical song and video that but for the intervention of the
Electoral Commission would have been broadcast in the lead up to the 2014 general
election.
The Commission is said to have overreached by interfering in the
expression of personal political views. Planet Key itself is now of historical interest,
but the legal controversy that it engendered is not; the controversy concerns the