From October 1988 to September 1994 the British government banned broadcasts of the voices of representatives from Sinn Féin and several Irish republican and loyalist groups on television and radio in the United Kingdom (UK). The restrictions, announced by the Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, on 19 October 1988, covered eleven organisations based in Northern Ireland. The ban followed a heightened period of violence in the course of the Troubles (1960s to 1990s), and reflected the UK government's belief in a need to prevent Sinn Féin from using the media for political advantage.
Broadcasters quickly found ways around the ban, chiefly by using actors to dub the voices of banned speakers. The legislation did not apply during election campaigns and under certain other circumstances. The restrictions caused difficulties for British journalists who spoke out against censorship imposed by various other countries, such as by Iraq and India. The Republic of Ireland had its own similar legislation that banned anyone with links to paramilitary groups from the airwaves, but this restriction lapsed in January 1994. This increased pressure on the British government to abandon its policy; John Major lifted the broadcast ban on 16 September 1994, a fortnight after the first Provisional Irish Republican Army ceasefire (declared on 31 August 1994).
Background
Throughout the Troubles, UK broadcasters were regularly required to stop or postpone the broadcast of documentaries and other programmes relating to Ireland. One of the most prominent instances of this was the 1985 Real Lives documentary for the BBC, At the Edge of the Union. The programme featured extensive footage of Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness and the Democratic Unionist Party's Gregory Campbell discussing the Troubles, and following direct intervention by the government it was temporarily blocked from being aired. The incident led to a one-day strike by members of the National Union of Journalists, who walked out in protest that the BBC's independence was being undermined.
The months leading up to the introduction of the ban had also seen a particularly intense period of Troubles-related violence. One of the bloodiest episodes of that time was the Ballygawley bus bombing which resulted in the deaths of several British soldiers. Another incident, the killing of two off-duty British soldiers who drove into an IRA funeral procession, brought the media into conflict with the government after journalists present at the funeral declined a Royal Ulster Constabulary request to hand over footage of the incident amid concerns doing so would put them at risk. In response the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, told the House of Commons journalists had a "bounden duty" to assist with the investigation. "Either one is on the side of justice in these matters or one is on the side of terrorism". Film was subsequently seized from the BBC and ITN under the Prevention of Terrorism and Emergency Provisions Acts.
The Conservative government believed there was a need for it to act to prevent Sinn Féin from using the media to defend the actions of the IRA, and the measures were part of a wider government response to the increase in violence, which also included changes to the right to silence and the tightening of rules allowing paramilitary prisoners early release. Further controversy also erupted in September 1988 over an intended edition of the Channel 4 discussion programme After Dark which was to have featured the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, as a guest. The show was dropped after the conservative academic Paul Wilkinson – a professor at Aberdeen University who specialised in the study of terrorism and political violence – voiced strong objections to its transmission.