(FLIP/IFEX) – Lisandro Duque, a columnist and film director, has been sentenced to three days in jail and a fine equal to five months’ minimum salary (approximately 1,620,000 pesos; US$576) for having failed to comply with a judicial order. On 13 April 2003, Duque published certain accusations against the director of the Proimégenes en Movimiento […]
(FLIP/IFEX) – Lisandro Duque, a columnist and film director, has been sentenced to three days in jail and a fine equal to five months’ minimum salary (approximately 1,620,000 pesos; US$576) for having failed to comply with a judicial order.
On 13 April 2003, Duque published certain accusations against the director of the Proimégenes en Movimiento company in his regular column “Lo divino y lo humano”, in the weekly “El Espectador”. The company’s director, Claudia Triana de Vargas, initiated legal action against the columnist, saying the statements made by Duque damaged her reputation and honour.
After a first instance court ruled in favour of Duque, the case was taken to the Bogotá Superior Court. The superior court ordered the journalist to publish a correction to the statements made in his column. Duque published the required correction on 7 September. He retracted the accusations and stated that he was doing so because he did not have sufficient evidence to confirm that Triana had been involved in questionable activities.
In spite of the correction, Triana pursued further legal action against Duque, arguing that the columnist had not completely followed the court order.
The Bogotá Superior Court ruled in favour of Triana. According to the presiding judge, Duque’s published correction did not clearly state that “some of the opinions were not true and there was no proof for others.”
This is one of the first times in Colombia that a journalist has been sentenced to prison for having published opinions, and could set a precedent for similar cases. FLIP believes that a debate should be initiated regarding whether issues relating to an individual’s honour should be resolved under criminal or civil law.
