‘Discriminatory’: Pro-life NGO wins case after ‘We love life!’ bus ad is banned
A state-owned bus company in the Catholic-majority country of Slovenia discriminated against a nonprofit group by removing their pro-life ads, Slovenia's national equality body has found, going against a previous court ruling.
The Advocate of the Principle of Equality ruled that the state-owned bus company discriminated against the pro-life nonprofit Zavod ŽIV!M by removing the ads, Austria-based human rights group ADF International, which supported the NGO, said in a statement.
The ads carried the messages "We love Life!" "You are not alone," "Step out of Silence" and "I mourn my child," accompanied by pictures of a happy family, a grieving mother and a woman holding a pregnancy test.
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The agency held that the ads should have been guarded by freedom of expression and beliefs protections found in the Slovenian Constitution.
"Every life is valuable. We want to stand by women in crisis, especially those facing unplanned pregnancies or the loss of a child," Darja Pečnik, the director of Zavod ŽIV!M, said in a statement.
Zavod ŽIV!M contracted the bus company, which had agreed to display its ads for a couple of months, but the municipal authorities deemed the messages "intolerant." As a result, authorities ordered the removal of the advertising from buses about a week into the campaign in 2018.
The bus ads were meant to show women in crisis that they are not alone, Pečnik said.
"Whether you agree or disagree with the work of Zavod ŽIV!M, everyone should be able to agree that it is wrong for the state to simply censor messages with which it disagrees. We seek to offer hope and support to many in difficult situations," Pečnik added.
ADF International's Senior Counsel Adina Portaru called the freedom of expression "the foundation of every free and democratic society."
"These innocuous statements and pictures of a happy family, a grieving mother and a woman holding a pregnancy test should not have been censored," Portaru said.
Last December, Slovenia's Administrative Court ruled against the NGO, saying that municipal authorities did not discriminate against the group, Catholic News Agency reported at the time.
The national equality body had previously ruled that Zavod ŽIV!M suffered discrimination when authorities ordered the bus company to remove the ads. However, the bus company sued the Advocate of the Principle of Equality and the court also asked the equality body to reconsider the case.
Responding to the court's judgment at the time, Pečnik said: "We are disappointed that the court agreed with the bus company that removed the ads. Our message, which celebrates life, should be celebrated, and instead, we have faced discrimination for it."
ADF International contends that censorship of pro-life messages is an "increasing problem across Europe."
