Freedom of Expression

PRESS RELEASE R100/10

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PRESS RELEASE 

R100/10

 

OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER CHANGES IN PROTECTION OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN EL SALVADOR

 

 

Washington D.C., October 7, 2010 - The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expresses its concern over a decision by the Supreme Court of El Salvador that allows for the imposition of criminal sanctions against journalists who disseminate information that offends the honor or reputation of public officials. The Office of the Special Rapporteur recognizes that the judgment, which references inter-American jurisprudence, establishes that such sanctions can only be imposed in response to the dissemination of information and not in response to the expression of opinions, and they are only permitted when the journalist acts in bad faith, as required by criminal law.  

 

The legal provisions that were subjected to constitutional review established that only civil law, rather than criminal law, could be used to protect the rights of public officials that were affected by the media’s dissemination of information in the public interest. These provisions were considered an important regional development in the process of abolishing ambiguous and disproportionate limitations on freedom of expression imposed by criminal law provisions related to the protection of honor and reputation.

 

On this point, the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression, adopted by the Inter-American Commission in 2000, establishes in Principle 10: "Privacy laws should not inhibit or restrict investigation and dissemination of information of public interest. The protection of a person’s reputation should only be guaranteed through civil sanctions in those cases in which the person offended is a public official, a public person or a private person who has voluntarily become involved in matters of public interest. In addition, in these cases, it must be proven that in disseminating the news, the social communicator had the specific intent to inflict harm, was fully aware that false news was disseminated, or acted with gross negligence in efforts to determine the truth or falsity of such news."

 

Moreover, Principle 11 states: "Public officials are subject to greater scrutiny by society. Laws that penalize offensive expressions directed at public officials, generally known as "desacato laws," restrict freedom of expression and the right to information."

 

The Office of the Special Rapporteur expresses its concern over this decision, which represents a setback in the regional trend toward eliminating from criminal codes the crime of defamation with regard to public officials. The Office of the Special Rapporteur calls on the authorities of El Salvador to issue regulations in this area so that the expression of critical ideas or information by any person with respect to public officials is completely protected against criminal prosecution. This guarantee is a necessary safeguard for vigorous and uninhibited debate, and for this reason it is reflected in the consistent jurisprudence of the Inter-American Commission, as well as in principles 10 and 11 of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and in the reports of this Office of the Special Rapporteur. It is also worth mentioning the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which established in the Case of Kimel v. Argentina that ambiguous criminal laws for protecting the honor and reputation of public servants run contrary to the American Convention on Human Rights.