MURPHY v. IRELAND JUDGMENT 19 56. In the first place, he maintained that it would have been possible to have limited the prohibition to religious advertising couched in terms offensive to the religious beliefs of others. The precise terms by which this could be done, including the standard of offensiveness to be prohibited, would be a matter for the State and a certain margin of appreciation would be accorded in that respect. Contrary to the Government, the applicant considered such a restriction possible and he referred, in particular, to Council Directive No. 89/552/EEC. According to the applicant, section 65 of the 2001 Act demonstrated that the State considered it possible to identify purely informational religious advertising and to allow the broadcasting of such advertising. Since his own advertisement contained an element of religious opinion and belief, he accepted in his oral submissions that his advertisement would be likely to fall foul of section 65 of the 2001 Act. However, he maintained that the dilution of the prohibition by section 65 of the 2001 Act was insufficient – the Convention also protected a person from expression on religious matters which was “likely and bound” or “calculated” to cause deep-seated offence to their religious beliefs. 57. Secondly, and as to the Government's wish to avoid benefiting dominant and powerful religious groups, the applicant noted that in the above-cited case of Vgt Verein gegen Tierfabriken the Government had referred to the risk of large and financially powerful groups seeking to exercise disproportionate influence through advertising. The Court, however, had found (at § 75 of that judgment) that the Government had not demonstrated in a “relevant and sufficient” manner why the grounds generally advanced in support of the prohibition of political advertising also served to justify the interference in the particular circumstances of the applicant association's case. The present applicant was in a similar position: there was no suggestion that he represented a large or powerful religion seeking to exercise a disproportionate influence through advertising. Indeed, section 65 of the 2001 Act was also inconsistent with any such concern by the Irish State: section 65 did not contain any limitation on access by religious groups to advertising notices in the broadcast media and, indeed, it could be argued that that section favoured large and well-established religions at the expense of smaller and less well-known groups because simple factual references to publications, events or ceremonies would be likely to have more impact in the case of established and familiar religions. 58. Thirdly, the applicant disagreed that the State would be put in an invidious position if it had to assess what kind of advertisement would cause offence. The State had already accepted that it would make a certain assessment under section 65 of the 2001 Act. In any event, bodies in many countries including Ireland regularly assessed commercial advertisements according to advertising standards which regulated, inter alia, the content and broadcasting of such advertisements. Accordingly, the applicant could