Lynch v British Broadcasting Corporation
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judgment Date | 01 January 1983 |
| Date | 01 January 1983 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Northern Ireland) |
Defendant arranged a series of broadcasts featuring the major political parties - Plaintiff's party excluded from series -Whether defendant under an enforceable duty to be impartial between political parties - Whether defendant exercised its discretion unreasonably.
The plaintiff was Chairman of the Northern Ireland Executive of the Workers' Party and one of its candidates for the general elections of 9th June, 1983. The plaintiff sought an interlocutory injunction restraining the defendant from excluding him from taking part in special pro-grammes to be broadcast by the defendant during the election campaign. The defendant decided that during the general election campaign in addition to coverage of the political parties and their aims in news and other pro-grammes on television and radio there should be special pro-grammes each of which pro-grammes would relate to one particular party. Only political parties nominating a minimum of five candidates and which had polled a minimum of 5% of the first preference votes in the Assembly elections of October 1982, were invited to participate in these special pro-grammes. The Workers' Party had 14 candidates nominated in the General election, but had polled only 2.7% of the first preference votes in the Assembly election. The plaintiff argued that the decision of the defendant to exclude the Workers' Party from the special pro-grammes was in breach of the defendant's implied legal duty to be impartial between political parties in providing them with facilities to broadcast. Held, dismissing the application (i) the defendant was under no legal duty enforceable by the courts to act with impartiality as between different parties: the Royal Charter for continuation of the defendant and the Licence granted by the Home Secretary to the defendant under...
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