(PROBIDAD/IFEX) – A court in Tegucigalpa, the nation’s capital, dismissed as invalid defamation charges against Robert Marín García and Dina Meza, editors of the digital magazine Revistazo.com. The charges were brought forward by SETECH, a private security company. The three presiding judges ruled that the complaint filed against the journalists did not detail the actual […]
(PROBIDAD/IFEX) – A court in Tegucigalpa, the nation’s capital, dismissed as invalid defamation charges against Robert Marín García and Dina Meza, editors of the digital magazine Revistazo.com. The charges were brought forward by SETECH, a private security company.
The three presiding judges ruled that the complaint filed against the journalists did not detail the actual crime of which they were being accused, and therefore the basis for the charges had not been adequately established.
“After having deliberated upon the facts and the applicable law, this court finds that in the actions being denounced by the plaintiff, the crimes of injury and insult have not been demonstrated,” reads the 31 October 2006 court resolution, a copy of which has been obtained by the Committee for Free Expression (Comité por la Libre Expresión, C-Libre).
According to the court’s ruling, there were various irregularities in the charges as filed, one being that the crime allegedly committed was not specified, and another being that “since SETECH is being treated here as a legal individual, it is necessary to be clearer as to the crime it is being accused of, given that it is debatable whether or not said company can commit a crime, a consideration not provided for in our criminal legislation.”
Thus, the court resolved “to declare the complaint presented by the lawyer Ángela Aguilar Palencia as inadmissible for the reasons given.”
On 6 October, Aguilar Palencia accused Marín García and Meza of having committed defamation by publishing, in their on-line magazine, a report on SETECH’s violation of labour laws.
