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pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3QGP5FQDC&live=true&tagid=ZZZLZDL1B0C&subh eading=media%20%26%20entertainment Media look forward to more freedom [snap] The right to free expression is not an absolute one. The convention hedges it with a range of exceptions - imposing greater limits on such freedom than the American Constitution. Free expression can be legally restricted where necessary to protect, among other things, public safety, health or morals and the reputations or rights of others.

"The general feeling is that most [current] advertising restrictions conform pretty well to the convention overrides," says Stephen Locke, director of advertising and sponsorship at the ITC.

The promotion of an "E-meter" to measure the removal of people's spiritual sin was the bizarre focus of one of the earliest tests of such restrictions.

The Church of Scientology claimed that a Swedish ban on promoting the meter infringed its rights, but the church was defeated at a preliminary European court hearing, which ruled the ban was justified by the public interest in stopping misleading advertisements.

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