ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies a diminution in the current predictability of the standard of protection offered by the Strasbourg Court to media expression. The Strasbourg Court under Article 10 of European Convention on Human Rights provides a high degree of protection for media expression. Sunday Times v United Kingdom provides a useful illustration of the operation of tests under Article 10(2) in the traditional context of press free expression. The 'political' media expression cases of Sunday Times v UK, Jersild v Denmark, Lingens v Austria, Thorgeirson v Iceland, all resulted in findings that Article 10 had been violated and all were marked by an intensive review of the restriction in question in which the margin of appreciation was narrowed almost to vanishing point. The use of laws on obscenity, indecency or blasphemy against explicit expression or regulation of media with a view to upholding 'standards of taste and decency' are matters that have been addressed at Strasbourg, relying on Article 10.
