KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC) – The three-member Constitutional Court has reserved judgment in the case in which a gay rights activist accused three television stations of refusing to air an advertisement promoting tolerance of homosexuals.

The judges heard arguments over four days in the claim was brought against TVJ, CVM and the state-run Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica (PBCJ) by Maurice Tomlinson, a Jamaican attorney who married another man, Tom Decker, in Canada last year January.

Queen’s Counsel Lord Gifford argued that the stations violated the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms by refusing to broadcast the advertisement.

The court heard that the Charter guarantees the right of Jamaicans to seek, receive, distribute, or disseminate information, opinions and ideas through any media.

But the attorneys for the defendants asked the court to dismiss the claim, with Queen’s Counsel Hugh Small arguing that the advertisement could be viewed as support for homosexuality, some of which were illegal in Jamaica.

He said also that CVM ran the risk of losing revenue if it was viewed that the station was in support of homosexuality.

Attorney Georgia Gibson-Henlin, who is representing TVJ, said that Tomlinson did not have the legal standing to bring the claim as he was acting on behalf of an overseas-based group — the New York-based AIDS-Free World —which made the advert.

The lawyer argued that Tomlinson has not suffered from the advertisement not being aired and that freedom of expression doesn’t give persons the right to use the property of others to spread their message.

Solicitor General Nicole Foster-Pusey, who is representing the PBCJ argued that the stations have editorial control over what they air and noted that the court has to exercise a balancing act between the freedom of expression and human dignity.

Meanwhile, in a statement on behalf of “scores of concerned pastors & leaders” after the court announced that it was reserving its judgment, Rev Al Miller of the Fellowship Tabernacle in Kingston, condemned the lawsuit and any push towards gay rights.

“As Christians leaders and the large contingent of believers that we serve directly, numbering over 500,000 (not including all denominations) and the general sentiment of the majority of the rest of the citizens of our nation, we register our full support of the position taken by the media houses not to have carried the advertisement being proposed by Mr Maurice Tomlinson.

“It was indicated to the stations by some of us that had those advertisements been carried, we would have registered our strongest objections. “We had registered our objections then and remain resolute to uphold the fundamental values and moral principles of our faith and that of the founding fathers of our nation.

“We declare that we will mobilise and resist any attempt to tamper with the constitution as it relates to the buggery law. Our present Charter of Rights sufficiently covers and protects the rights of all citizens,” the statement said.

The religious groups say they would not support any politician or political party that seeks to promote and “foist on our nation, in any shape or form, the gay rights agenda which is alien to our culture as a people”, noting that recent information shared by the Children’s Advocate indicates that there has been a 74 per cent increase in reported buggery acts against children.

“We will not sit by and allow the thinking of less than one per cent or any weak-willed Government to lead us into simply following other nations along a path that is not in our best interest,” said the release.