Freedom of expression
Freedom of expression is a right, a human right, included also on the partial islamist Cairo Declaration of Human Rights. But is simply that, a human right that can be infringed or violated even on the so called Western civilization.
There are examples, there are too much examples of violation of this human right. The last one, on my personal point of view, has been perpetrated on Spain, on the lawsuit against radio star Jiménez Losantos. This person has been condemned just for the only fact of criticizing the mayor of Madrid, Mr. Gallardón. I have talked here about this; I just want to write something related first to the veredict, and second to the consequences of this action.
The basis for the veredict was that Mr. Jiménez Losantos used some information that was false (the Spanish newspaper ABC). But the thing here is that (1) Mr. Gallardón did nothing against the ABC in order to rectify the information, and (2) Mr. Gallardón accepted to meet Mr. Jiménez Losantos to discuss about it. Everything was a game well directed by Mr. Gallardón, who showed his more hypocritical and cunning face over this time. Mr. Gallardón was not only protected by the judge, who allowed him to read parts of his declarations (somethhing not permitted by the Spanish law), but also pursued Mr. Jiménez Losantos, not allowing to talk about facts related to tha lawsuit.
The Spanish Minister of Justice, Mr. Bermejo, interpreted himself the veredict better that any one, of course on his own profit. Just a note about Mr. Bermejo: he cannot talk about honesty and justice until he will not restore or clarify, in justice, what happens with the apartament and the money the Spanish Administration spent on it. Honesty? Look at yourself…
After the veredict, there were lots of leftist people applauding this. Even people with huge (?) legal knowledge such as Mr. Blanco, PSOE’s general secretary, who, I remember well, used a handicapped person against the PP some time ago. He, who utilized this case, is now applauding the sentence. Well, it is his criteria. He knows perfectly when the freedom of expression is right or is wrong.
The issue now is: what can be done on a political critique? According with the judge, the critique must be done only if the information is true, but the information was not denied or denounced, so I assume that is true. According to the attorney, Mr. Jiménez Losantos was exercising his freedom to expression, but insisting on doing this time after time is the fault. That is the point: exercising a right various times is against the law. Taking this into account, the journalists or political comentators must exercise their right only once. Only once a week? Only once a day? Only once a month? I think that this should be stated by Mr. Blanco. But please do so differentiating between the critics and the related media.
For example: for people related with El País, TVE-1 and TVE-1, Telecinco, El Periódico de Cataluña (did anybody knew that before Mr. Zapatero won on 2.004? Because I see them on all the media!), etc., the right must be exercised with no limits. For journalists or critics working on COPE, El Mundo, sometimes ABC, sometimes La Razón (depending on the day), the number of critics should be one a month. That is a good measure to ensure the freedom of expression in Spain.
Leave a Reply