A decision by the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) to uphold a complaint about anti-racism advertisements run by the Irish section of Amnesty International has been sharply criticised.
The controversial advertisements carried photographs of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, and the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, together with the slogan: "Some say they're involved in racism. Others say they're doing nothing about it."
The ASAI said the code of advertising standards required that advertisers should have written permission in advance from anyone portrayed or referred to in an advertisements, but this had not happened in this instance.
"The committee did not accept that the expression `involved in racism' as used in the advertisement would be understood as merely `involved in the issue of racism' as claimed by the advertisers," it said.
The director of the Irish section of Amnesty, Mr Sean Love, described the ASAI sanction as an attack on Amnesty and its work.
"It's outrageous, inappropriate and frankly arrogant," he said.
The ruling that Amnesty had to ask anyone it criticised for permission before doing so was unworkable. This would mean it would have to get the permission of Milosevic before criticising him about genocide, which was laughable, he said.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties also deplored the decision. Its director, Mr Donncha O'Connell, said the ASAI should hang its head in shame. "It would be more fitting for the ASAI to offer Amnesty International an award for its bold and clearly effective campaign," he said.