Campaign Expenditures and Free Speech

Issues related to the regulation of Campaign Expenditures typically create a conflict between reducing corruption in the electoral process on the one hand and protecting the right to freedom of expression on the other. Undoubtedly, money has negative effects and consequences in politics, which strongly affect the integrity electoral system and equality of candidates. Hence, controlling and regulating campaign expenses have become one of the necessities of democratic electoral systems. It can also be accepted that spending on elections by natural or legal persons is considered as a form of freedom of expression. But the question is, if participation in the financing of campaign expenses is considered an expression of opinion, is the imposition of restrictions or prohibitions on election expenses a violation of freedom of expression? This research has investigated this question by descriptive-analytical method by referring to the court decision in this field. Result show that in some cases the court considered the Imposition of these restrictions to be contrary to freedom of expression, but in some cases it did not consider the prohibitions but the set ceiling to be contrary to freedom of expression