Sex Pary Ad banned!

With about 70% or so (according to the most recent figures) of Australians supporting voluntary euthanasia, it's a complete mystery to me why the Australian TV's self regulatory advertising body has banned it from being aired on TV. This is after giving it the OK previously. Here's the add:


 
WTF is wrong with that? What is wrong with saying "voluntary euthanasia"? This is an issue very close to a lot of people. People who've seen loved one's suffer terribly, or facing the prospect themselves of a long drawn out and agonising death. Is this not an issue to be talked about?

But the self regulatory body, on the advice of CAD (Commercials Advice) had banned it. Why? The guidelines say you can't depict a method of suicide. Well, they didn't. It was simply about an issue.

From the Sex Party:

Commercials Advice (CAD), a division of Free TV and Australia’s self-regulatory body for Australian television advertising, has banned a series of Australian Sex Party TV ads advocating a policy of ‘voluntary euthanasia’. The ads had been approved for broadcast by CAD over four weeks ago on 1st August and were due to start screening today. At 4pm last Friday, when all production studio facilities had closed for the weekend and there was no possibility of changing or amending the ads, the Sex Party was told by CAD that its ads were in breach of their guidelines and unless amended, would be taken off air. 

Sex Party President and Senate Candidate for Victoria, Fiona Patten, said that CAD’s actions constituted a direct interference in the free and fair distribution of political information in the final stages of a federal election and completely contradicted the High Court ruling on political advertising established in1992 in Nationwide News Pty Ltd v Wills and Australian Capital Television Pty Ltd v Commonwealth (ACTV) 177 CLR 1. The High Court held that there was an implied freedom of political communication in the Constitution, basing their decision on the representative nature of our democracy. 

Ms Patten called on the Communications Minister, Steven Conroy and Opposition spokesperson, Malcolm Turnbull, to come out and say where they stood on the issue and whether as a Minister in one week’s time, they would uphold CAD’s decision or allow TV stations to run the ads without penalty. more