Right to Regulate One’s Own Advertising Space

This right to regulate advertising space in newspapers and other similar media is vital to the freedom of expression. This is because the size of advertising space affects the price of the media and affects its circulation, which is itself an important part of the freedom of expression. 

This right has been firmly entrenched through case law as well. In 1962, the Supreme Court held that a law which allows the government to control the allocation of advertising space among newspapers was unconstitutional.¹ The Court invalidated a governmental policy controlling the price of newspapers with reference to their number of pages and advertising space. This was because this law violated the newspapers’ right to commercial speech. 

1. Sakal Papers (P) Ltd. v. The Union of India, AIR 1962 SC 305 [↩]