Censorship in Spain

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Censorship in Spain involves the suppression of speech or public communication and raises issues of freedom of speech.

Contents

The non-profit Reporters Without Borders, on its 2020 report, placed the country in the 29 out of 180 position with respect its level of freedom of the press. [1] It cited the Law on Citizen Security, also known as the Gag Law, as one of the main obstacles to freedom of speech. [2]

History

Spanish Inquisition

Francoism

Basque nationalism

Some media linked to Basque nationalism, in particular some linked to the abertzale left, have been object of censorship. During the decade of 1990, the national police investigated the alleged relation between the basque newspaper Egin and the armed group ETA. The newspaper closed in 1998 by order of the judge Baltasar Garzón. [3] In 2009, the court resolved that the activity of the newspaper was legal. [4] However, after 11 years of closure, the newspaper could not open again. [5]

After the closure of Egin, one of its journalist, Pepe Rei, continued his work in the Ardi Beltza magazine, which in 2001 was closed by order of Baltasar Garzón too. This order was later revoked. [6]

In 2003, Juan del Olmo, judge of the Audiencia Nacional, orderer the temporary closure the newspaper Egunkaria during six month, and the embargo of all its property, with an accusation of being part of a business conglomerate controlled by ETA. The closure order was repeatedly extended during seven years, until all accused were absolved in 2010. [7] [8]

In January 2011, the Audiencia Nacional ordered the closure of the website Apurtu.org . In 2013 the case was dismissed but the website never opened again. One of the arrested during the case, Miguel Ángel Llamas, spent 18 months in prison without a trial. [9] One month before the dismissal of the case, the Audiencia Nacional ordered the closure of the website Ateak Ireki , considering it the successor of Apurtu.org. After the dismissal of the Apurtu.org, the precautionary measures against Ateak Ireki remained. In order to avoid a long legal process to open Ateak Ireki, a new project was crowdfunded to open a new online media project. The result of it was the news portal Ahotsa.info. [10]

In 2013, the Audiencia Nacional closed a local online newspaper of Burlada, BurtlataHerria, accusing the administrator of apology of terrorism. A year later he was absolved, but the website did not open again. [11]

In 2013, Eloy Velasco, judge of the Audiencia Nacional, presented criminal charges for apology of terrorism against seven member of the youth organization Ernai and ordered the closure of their website. [12] The judge also ordered Topatu to take down videos of their press coverage of a festival organized by Ernai, considering it apology for terrorism too. Topatu took the videos down and three of its journalists were called as witnesses in court. [13]

Insults to the Crown

Insults to the Crown (The king and royal family as institution representative of the whole nation) are a criminal offense in Spain, according to articles 490.3 and 491 of the Spanish Criminal Code. [14] This crime is controversial amongst different political forces. [15] Some of the processed for this crime are the satirical magazine El Jueves , [16] the newspapers Deia and Gara , the magazine Punto y Hora de Euskal Herria , politicians of the United Left party, the abertzale left, the left Catalan independence movement and music bands.

Law on Citizen Security of 2015

The Organic Law 4/2015, 30 March, of the protection of citizen security, [17] also known as the Gag Law, is an organic law, that entered into force on 1 July 2015, replacing the previous law known as the Corcuera Law. [18] The law restricted public demonstrations by placing restrictions on where and when protests can take place, as well as fines of up to €30,000 for violations of this law. [19]

2017 Catalan independence referendum

During the days before the 2017 Catalan independence referendum, the Civil Guard closed the official website of the referendum by order of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia. It also closed or blocked multiple alternative domains, official and non official. It blocked the main gateway of the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), gateway.ipfs.io, which was being used to access the blocked websites.[ citation needed ] [20]

On 20 September the Civil Guard entered the headquarters of the Fundació puntCat, which administers the top-level domain .cat, and arrested the director of IT, Pep Masoliver. [21] The Internet Society and the Electronic Frontier Foundation denounced the mandate for domain name registrars to exercise Internet censorship tasks. [22] [23]

By 27 September, more than 140 websites related to the referendum were blocked. [24] On 11 October, the official website of the Assemblea Nacional Catalana organization, assemblea.cat, was blocked. [25]

Other cases

In 2000, the Spanish Data Protection Agency initiated a process against the Association Against Torture. This association published annual reports on torture cases in Spain and published them in their website, hosted by Nodo50. The website closed to avoid a fine of up to 100 millions of pesetas for publishing the names of police agents and prison officials denounced for torture cases. Despite the closure, multiple websites hosted in other countries replicated the content, which remains accessible. [26]

Since 2020, the Canadian pro-abortion non-profit Women on Web has been censored by various Spanish ISPs in order to prevent access by Spanish residents. [27]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ETA (separatist group)</span> Former armed Basque separatist group (1959–2018)

ETA, an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, was an armed Basque nationalist and far-left separatist organization in the Basque Country between 1959 and 2018, with its goal being independence for the region. The group was founded in 1959 during the era of Francoist Spain, and later evolved from a pacifist group promoting traditional Basque culture to a violent paramilitary group. It engaged in a campaign of bombings, assassinations, and kidnappings throughout Spain and especially the Southern Basque Country against the regime, which was highly centralised and hostile to the expression of non-Castilian minority identities. ETA was the main group within the Basque National Liberation Movement and was the most important Basque participant in the Basque conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baltasar Garzón</span> Spanish former judge (born 1955)

Baltasar Garzón Real is a Spanish former judge. He served on Spain's central criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, and was the examining magistrate of the Juzgado Central de Instrucción No. 5, which investigates the most important criminal cases in Spain, including terrorism, organised crime, and money laundering. In 2011, he was suspended from judicial activity and in 2012 he was convicted of illegal wiretapping and disbarred for a period of 11 years. During this time, Garzón legally assisted Julian Assange.

<i>Gara</i> Spanish Basque newspaper

Gara is a bilingual (Basque/Spanish) newspaper published in the city of Donostia-San Sebastián in the Basque Autonomous Community. The newspaper's target market comprises the area of the Basque Country, but its circulation is largely constrained to the Southern Basque territory (Spain), since Spanish is mainly used.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VilaWeb</span>

VilaWeb is a Catalan-language web portal and daily news outlet, founded in May 1995 by the journalists Vicent Partal and Assumpció Maresma. It was the first online medium produced completely in Catalan, and the first news media in Spain to be based entirely online. Its editorial line advocates for Catalonia's separation from the Spanish state.

<i>Egunkaria</i> Former Basque-language newspaper

Egunkaria for thirteen years was the only fully Basque language newspaper in circulation until it was closed down on 20 February 2003 by the Spanish authorities due to allegations of an illegal association with ETA, the armed Basque separatist group. After seven years, on 15 April 2010 the defendants were acquitted on all charges related to ties to ETA. The issue of damages for the closure of the newspaper remains open, as well as the alleged torture of the members of the newspaper's executive board during detention.

This article is about the Internet in Spain.

Egin was a Basque newspaper written in Spanish language and Basque language. Founded in 1977 the paper was in circulation until 1998 when it was closed down by the Spanish government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gürtel case</span> Political corruption scandal in Spain

The Gürtel case was a major political corruption scandal in Spain that implicated hundreds of officers of the People's Party (PP), Spain's major conservative party, some of whom were subsequently forced to resign or were suspended.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oriol Junqueras</span> Politician and historian from Catalonia, Spain (born 1969)

Oriol Junqueras i Vies is a Catalan politician and historian. A former mayor of the municipality of Sant Vicenç dels Horts in Catalonia, Junqueras served as Vice President of Catalonia from January 2016 to October 2017, when he was removed from office following the Catalan declaration of independence and entered prison until June 2021 for his role in organizing the 2017 Catalan independence referendum. He is president of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC). Born in 1969 in Barcelona, Junqueras grew up in the municipality of Sant Vicenç dels Horts. After graduating from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, he taught history at the university.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joaquim Forn</span> Catalan politician and lawyer (born 1964)

Joaquim Forn i Chiariello is a Spanish politician and lawyer from Catalonia. A former deputy mayor of the city of Barcelona in north-eastern Spain, Forn served as Minister of the Interior from July 2017 to October 2017 when he was removed from office following the Catalan declaration of independence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Anubis</span>

The Operation Anubis was a police operation in Catalonia, Spain, initiated on 20 September 2017 by the Civil Guard following orders of the trial court number 13 of Barcelona, directed by judge Juan Antonio Ramírez Sunyer. Its aim was to dismantle the framework of the Catalan independence referendum of 1 October 2017, that was suspended on 6 September 2017 by the Constitutional Court of Spain as breaching the 1978 Constitution. Different headquarters of the Generalitat de Catalunya were searched and 14 people were arrested, including high ranking administrative staff, and company CEO's involved in the preparation of the referendum. Simultaneously, several printing and media companies were searched looking for ballot papers and boxes. More than 140 websites were shut down by the Spanish justice and police.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carmen Lamela</span> Spanish judge

Carmen Lamela Díaz is a Spanish judge. Lamela serves as examining magistrate at the Third Court of the National Court of Spain. Her area of expertise is criminal law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Committees for the Defense of the Republic</span>

The Committees for the Defence of the Republic, or CDR, previously named Committees for the Defense of the Referendum, are a network of committees that function on a local, regional and national level in Catalonia. Its initial purpose was to facilitate the Catalan independence referendum. After the referendum, they adopted the new objective to fight for the Catalan Republic, and publicly called for violent protests and civil disobedience. The Committees for the Defense of the Republic have also made acts of sabotage, blocking railway lines and the Barcelona–El Prat Josep Tarradellas Airport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trial of Catalonia independence leaders</span> Ongoing trials of supporters of Catalan independence from Spain

The trial of Catalonia independence leaders, legally named Causa Especial 20907/2017 and popularly known as the Causa del procés, was an oral trial that began on 12 February 2019 in the Supreme Court of Spain. The case was tried by seven judges and was chaired by judge Manuel Marchena. Judge Pablo Llarena had previously coordinated an instruction between October 2017 and July 2018, as a result of which 12 people were tried, including the previous vice president Oriol Junqueras of the regional government and most of the cabinet as well as political activists Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart and the former Speaker of the Parliament of Catalonia Carme Forcadell. Some defendants remained in pre-trial detention without bail from the beginning of the instruction process and have thus already served part of their sentence.

Ahotsa.info is a Spanish online newspaper covering Navarre. It was founded in 2014 and crowdfunded. After the closure of Apurtu.org and Ateak Ireki ordered by the Audiencia Nacional and the later dismissal of the case, a group initiated the Ahotsa.info project to give continuity to the work of the previously closed media outlets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enrique Santiago</span> Spanish politician

Enrique Fernando Santiago Romero is a Spanish lawyer and politician, who is the secretary-general of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) since April 2018. He has been as member of the 13th Congress of Deputies, representing Madrid, since 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mertxe Aizpurua</span>

Mertxe Aizpurua Arzallus is a Spanish journalist and politician from the Basque Country who currently serves as Member of the Congress of Deputies of Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marian Beitialarrangoitia</span> Basque journalist and politician

Maria Angeles Beitialarrangoitia Lizarralde is a Basque journalist and politician. She was previously a member of the Congress of Deputies of Spain and Basque Parliament, and mayor of Hernani.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ente Nacional de Comunicaciones</span> National communications and media regulator of Argentina

The National Communications Entity is the national communications and media regulator of Argentina. It was created by a presidential decree in 2016 and combines the former Federal Authority for Audiovisual Communication Services (AFSCA) and the Federal Authority for Information and Communication Technologies.

Esteban Muruetagoiena Scola was a doctor who worked in the Basque Country. On March 15, 1982, he was arrested by the Spanish Guardia Civil and then released on the 25th of the same month. He died three days later. His official cause of death was heart failure, but there are notable indications that he had been subject to torture.

References

  1. Reporters Without Borders (2019). "Clasificación Mundial de la Libertad de Prensa 2017" . Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  2. Reporters Without Borders (2019). "Spain". Archived from the original on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  3. Lázaro, Fernando; Yanel, Agustín (16 July 1998). "Garzón ordena el cierre de "Egin" por su implicación en la red financiera de ETA". El Mundo (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 6 May 2009.
  4. Altuna, Manex; Iriondo, Iñaki (27 May 2009). "El Supremo rebaja las condenas del 18/98 y desmonta ahora la tesis usada para cerrar "Egin"". Gara (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  5. Encarnacion, Omar G (2012). "Justice in Times of Transition: Lessons from the Iberian Experience". International Studies Quarterly. 56 (1): 179–192. JSTOR   41409830.
  6. "18 Jan in History". www.safran-arts.com. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  7. "La Audiencia Nacional absuelve a los cinco directivos de 'Egunkaria'". Público (in Spanish). 12 April 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  8. Landa López, Isabel (17 April 2010). "No hay quien repare el cierre de un medio". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  9. Diaz, Martxelo (29 December 2013). "Archivan el sumario que supuso el cierre de la web Apurtu.org". Gara (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  10. Diaz, Martxelo (7 February 2015). "Ahotsa.info, otra herramienta para dar voz al movimiento popular de Nafarroa". Gara (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  11. University Module Series (2018). "Counter-Terrorism 1: Introduction to Internal Terrorism" (PDF). UNODC. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  12. "La Audiencia Nacional imputa a siete miembros de Ernai por homenajear al exjefe etarra 'Thierry'". Europa Press (in Spanish). 17 December 2013. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  13. Crowbar, Richard (20 October 2014). "La Audiencia Nacional contra la libertad de información". Diagonal (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  14. Ley Orgánica 10/1995 de 23 de noviembre del Código Penal.
  15. Boletín oficial de las Cortes Generales 22/04/2008
  16. La Audiencia prohíbe la venta del último número de 'El Jueves' por un presunto delito de injurias a la Corona
  17. Boletín Oficial del Estado. "Ley Orgánica 4/2015, de 30 de marzo, de protección de la seguridad ciudadana" (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  18. "Spain: Organic Law No. 1/2015 of March 30, 2015". www.wipo.int. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  19. The Guardian (12 March 2015). "Spain puts 'gag' on freedom of expression as senate approves security law" . Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  20. Electronic Frontier Foundation (2017). "No Justification for Internet Censurship during Catalan referendum". EDRi. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  21. "En libertad la directora de T-Systems y el responsable de fundación Punt.cat". El Periódico de Catalunya (in Spanish). 22 September 2017. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  22. Donck, Frédéric (21 September 2017). "Internet Society statement on Internet blocking measures in Catalonia, Spain". Internet Society . Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  23. Malcolm, Jeremy (21 September 2017). ".cat Domain a Casualty in Catalonian Independence Crackdown". Electronic Frontier Foundation . Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  24. Alandete, David; Ortega Dolz, Patricia; Pueyo Busquets, Jordi (27 September 2017). "'Hackers' rusos ayudan a tener activa la web de referéndum". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  25. "La Guardia Civil interviene la web de la ANC". El Confidencial (in Spanish). 11 October 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  26. "No data privacy for top torturers". Nodo50 . Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  27. "Women on Web website censored in Spain" . Retrieved 22 January 2024.

See also