ABSTRACT
This chapter covers a variety of forms of expression. Much of it is primarily visual and also falls outside the category of political expression. This may be said of some films, of music, opera, mime, plays, paintings, all of which are covered by aspects of the law and regulation considered below. But aspects of political expression are also covered, since some regulation of political expression is a feature of broadcasting regulation, while hate speech almost inevitably has a political message. Thus, under the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998, the judiciary may be expected to take a different stance towards the different types of expression, which reflects the hierarchy of expression recognised within the Strasbourg jurisprudence, as the Introduction to this part indicated.1 In any event, adoption of such a stance would be in accord with their own leanings as expressed in the recent free expression decisions in the pre-HRA era discussed in Chapter 3.2 However, if the justifications for freedom of expression considered in the Introduction are taken into account, particularly those from truth and self-fulfilment, it is suggested that there is no convincing basis for relegating ‘artistic’ expression to a lowly place in such a hierarchy.
