Dublin City Council is "censoring free speech" and contravening human rights legislation, according to the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL).
ICCL director Aisling Reidy has written to the council saying its policy of refusing to allow posters on lamp-posts or hoardings advertising public meetings violates the 2003 Human Rights Act and the 1997 Litter Pollution Act.
"Article 10 of the 2003 European Convention on Human Rights Act obliges the council not to interfere with freedom of expression," she said. The 2003 Act says the right to freedom of expression "shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers."
A group of citizens calling themselves Dubliners For Free Speech will protest outside City Hall on Monday evening as councillors arrive for the monthly council meeting.
Tom Loftus, waste manger with the council, said it was standing policy "not to allow posters on its property unless those organisations placing them have the permission in writing from the council to do so".
