(WPFC/IFEX) – The following is a statement by the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations: Inter American Press Association ( http://www.sipiapa.org ) International Press Institute ( http://www.freemedia.at ) North American Broadcasters Association ( http://www.nabanet.com ) World Association of Newspapers ( http://www.wan-press.org ) World Press Freedom Committee ( http://www.wpfc.org ) GLOBAL COORDINATING COMMITTEE OF PRESS FREEDOM […]
(WPFC/IFEX) – The following is a statement by the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations:
Inter American Press Association ( http://www.sipiapa.org )
International Press Institute ( http://www.freemedia.at )
North American Broadcasters Association ( http://www.nabanet.com )
World Association of Newspapers ( http://www.wan-press.org )
World Press Freedom Committee ( http://www.wpfc.org )
GLOBAL COORDINATING COMMITTEE OF PRESS FREEDOM ORGANIZATIONS DENOUNCES JUDICIAL ASSAULT ON PRESS FREEDOM IN SPAIN
Toronto, Canada, Nov. 10, 2004 – The global Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, meeting in Toronto, Canada, on Oct. 29, denounced a judicial assault on press freedom in Spain, which for almost a decade has denied two journalists their right to free speech.
At the meeting, the Committee extended its support to journalists José Luis Gutiérrez, former editor-in-chief of the defunct Diario 16 newspaper, and Rosa María López, former Diario 16 reporter, who were indicted in 1996, months after allegedly violating Moroccan King Hassan II’s right to maintain his honor. The indictments took place after Diario 16 published a story about the seizure of five tons of hashish inside a truck belonging to the Moroccan Royal Crown. Even though the story was proven accurate, the defendants were found guilty and sentenced by two lower courts.
In order to indict them, the courts used two arbitrary laws inherited or adapted from the Franco dictatorship, including the 1982 Protection of Honor, Privacy and Right to a Respectful Image Law, which places the burden of proving truth or falsity upon the defendant, and Franco’s 1966 Press Law, most of which is still current, and by which not only the author of the article is incriminated but also the editor-in-chief and the publishing company as well.
The Committee also acknowledged Spain is a member of the European Union, one of the world’s most solid press freedom environments, and that that country has made remarkable progress in the past 30 years after the advent of free elections and democracy. In fact, Spanish society is a model of peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy. Freedoms of expression and of the press are enshrined in the Spanish Constitution.
Yet, this year Spain’s Supreme Tribunal rejected the defendants’ appeal alleging the headline of the story was “insulting and untruthful,” even though in the same sentence the magistrates acknowledged the article was accurate.
Also, a yet-to-be-determined fine could cause catastrophic financial ruin to both journalists, who have appealed to the country’s highest court, the Constitutional Tribunal.
“The decisions to date set a very dangerous precedent allowing journalists in democratic countries to be silenced by the leaders of autocratic governments,” states the resolution supporting the journalists.
The resolution also states the following:
“We consider the sentence against Jose Luis Gutiérrez and Rosa María López an assault on Article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, protecting the right of any person to impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers;
“View this lengthy assault on their fundamental rights a form of judicial harassment unworthy of a member of the European Union;
“See the sentence as a blatant disregard of the consistent rulings of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), that press freedom overrides alleged insults to a person’s honor;
“Recall a 2002 ECHR ruling in the case of the Paris newspaper Le Monde reversing French court convictions of two of the paper’s journalists for alleged insults against Hassan II. The ECHR called the sentence a violation of the journalists’ exercise of their freedom of expression and an attack on Article 10 of the Convention that protects free speech and freedom of the press.”
The Committee, finally, urged the Spanish judicial system to reconsider this decision and declare the sentence null and void, thus bringing to an end nine years of unfair punishment for José Luis Gutiérrez and Rosa María López. It also urged the Spanish state to abrogate the laws unworthy of a democracy that were used to indict and sentence these journalists.
