Australia

This was an application by the tobacco companies for judicial review of a decision of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal that  commercial television licensees had breached s100(5A) of the Broadcasting and Television Act 1942 (Cth). Section 100(5A) prohibited a licensee from broadcasting or televising smoking, cigarette or cigarette tobacco advertisements. (Note: the Broadcasting and Television Act has since been repealed).

The Tribunal had decided that four licensees had breached s100(5A) by broadcasting tobacco advertisements, namely: an advertisement for Redhead Matches ("Strike Up a Friendship") which concerned the use of matches to light cigarettes; a Benson & Hedges Cricket ("Field of Battle") advertisement; an advertisement for The Australian Ballet, sponsored by Benson & Hedges; an advertisement for the film "Aussie Assault" which featured the "Winfield" name; and a broadcast of the 1982 Rugby League Grand Final, which showed billboards with "Anyhow have a Winfield 25s ..." in the background.

Fox J dismissed each of the tobacco companies' applications, with the exception of the Tribunal's decision in relation to the telecast of the Rugby League Grand Final. Fox J upheld the Tribunal's decision in relation to a dance performance broadcast as part of the Grand Final, but found that the Tribunal had erred in law in finding that the whole of the football match was a tobacco advertisement in contravention of the Act.

The tobacco companies unsuccessfully appealed this decision to the Full Court (see: Re: Rothmans of Pall Mall (Australia) Limited; the Benson & Hedges Company Pty Limited; the Benson & Hedges Company Limited and the Australian Ballet Foundation; Rothmans of Pall Mall (Australia) Limited and NSW Rugby League Limited v. The Australian Broadcasting Tribunal [1985] FCA 91; 58 ALR 675).