18 MURPHY v. IRELAND JUDGMENT the suggestion that listeners to a local radio would take offence at his innocuous advertisement stretched credulity. The applicant added that the relevant local radio station knew its audience well and would hardly willingly transmit an advertisement which it considered would be likely to offend its listeners. 52. He underlined that this was not a case about the licensing of broadcast media and did not concern the third sentence of Article 10 § 1 of the Convention. In any event, the relevant case-law (including Groppera Radio AG and Others v. Switzerland, judgment of 28 March 1990, Series A no. 173, § 64; Informationsverein Lentia and Others, cited above, at § 32; and Radio ABC v. Austria, judgment of 20 October 1997, Reports 1997-VI, § 28) provided that a restriction had to be justified under the third sentence of Article 10 § 1 as well as under the second paragraph of Article 10 of the Convention. 53. As to the Government's argument that the neutrality of broadcasting justified the prohibition, the applicant maintained that that argument presumed that any system of licensing could control the broadcast media and, in particular, impose conditions on the content of broadcasts which would not be compatible with the Convention if they were imposed on the print media. Such a principle would be, however, inconsistent with the principles laid down in the judgment in the above-cited case of Informationsverein Lentia and Others v. Austria. He argued that, in any event, it did not follow that the neutrality of the broadcast media would be undermined by the transmission of religious advertising. Much of the advertising broadcast was not commercial and related to sensitive issues including advertising about the effects of smoking, alcohol consumption, the importance of voting and about referenda. Indeed, the national broadcaster transmitted religious services of the Catholic and some Protestant Christian groupings and could publish notices advertising this. At fixed times twice a day bells were broadcast on RTE to signal Catholic prayer. Broadcasting religious material was not itself problematic and, indeed, it demonstrated that the Government was not concerned about favouring one religion over another. 54. As to the weight to be attached to the fact that the advertisement could have been published other than in the broadcast media, the applicant referred to the above-cited case of Vgt Verein gegen Tierfabriken v. Switzerland where the Court considered that access to such other media was indicative of the non-pressing nature of a restriction. Alternative publication means was not, in any event, sufficient justification for the exclusion from the broadcast media given the relatively reduced force and impact of the non-broadcast media. 55. The applicant disputed the Government's submission that alternative options were not feasible.

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